{"id":18539,"date":"2019-04-21T12:46:15","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T16:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=18539"},"modified":"2019-04-21T12:46:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T16:46:15","slug":"student-and-amateur-cubesat-news-roundup-april-21-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=18539","title":{"rendered":"Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – April.21.2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat<\/a> \/ SmallSat projects and programs:<\/p>\n

** 60 ThinSats built by middle and high school students reached space<\/strong> aboard Northrop-Grumman Cygnus cargo vessel launch on Antares rocket to the ISS: 60 ThinSat Constellation focused on STEM, Launched successfully April 17th<\/a><\/p>\n

Mission Success yesterday for\u00a0Indiana’s<\/span>\u00a0NearSpace Launch Inc. (NSL)<\/a>\u00a0<\/u>ThinSat constellations launched off the Antares NG-11 on route to International Space Station. The 60 ThinSat were developed for\u00a0Virginia Space<\/span>\u00a0as a STEM program for middle and high schools. Over 400 students participated in the testing and delivering of experiments in orbit today.\u00a0The school teams were overseen by\u00a0Twiggs Space Labs<\/span>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Co-founder of\u00a0Twiggs Space Labs<\/span>\u00a0and Co-Inventor of the CubeSat,\u00a0Bob Twiggs<\/span>, states, “Our goal is to inspire future generations of engineers and scientists through innovation in the field of space.” Twiggs goes further to say, “To me, this (ThinSat launch) is the most exciting day of my career.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

ThinSat is a new pioneering model for satellites that are scalable, simpler, and more affordable. Their focus is to broaden access to space for educational and space research participants.<\/em><\/p>\n

The ThinSat comes in an array of sizes that comply with the CubeSat launcher. The 11.2 cm by 11.7 cm by 2 cm ThinSat version was the first model to launch this week. The ThinSat team choose to use EyeStar radios and Alta Devices solar technology. The NSL’s EyeStar radios allow for 24\/7 connectivity via Globalstar’s constellation. Alta Devices solar cells provide a unique modular, lightweight, flexible form factor with high efficiency characteristics.<\/em><\/p>\n

The ThinSat inventor and co-founder of NSL,\u00a0Hank Voss<\/span>\u00a0states, “ThinSats will travel in a region of the atmosphere that is important to climate and space weather forecasts, but rarely studied because atmospheric drag makes it hard to keep satellites there,” Voss also expressed, as an emeritus professor, he is “thankful to\u00a0Virginia Space<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Twiggs Space Labs<\/span>for investing into the project that has a such strong STEM and research outreach.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The ThinSat components were developed by NearSpace Launch Inc. (NSL)<\/a> <\/u><\/em>of Upland, IN.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Scalable models of ThinSats from 3U to 27U in size.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

See also:<\/p>\n