{"id":22640,"date":"2020-09-09T11:30:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T15:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=22640"},"modified":"2020-09-09T10:58:35","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T14:58:35","slug":"student-and-amateur-cubesat-news-roundup-sept-9-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=22640","title":{"rendered":"Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Sept.9.2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat<\/a> \/ SmallSat projects and programs (find previous smallsat roundups here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

** USC student team comes out on top in AIAA smallsat competition<\/strong>: USC Wins First Place in the AIAA Small Satellite Student Competition – USC Viterbi School of Engineering<\/a><\/p>\n

A team of students from the USC Laboratory for Exploration and Astronautical Physics (LEAP), including Robert Antypas and Jeffrey Asher, doctoral students in the Viterbi Department of Astronautical Engineering<\/a>. The students are working to optimize the design of ionic electrospray thrusters, in-space propulsion devices, in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory<\/a> (AFRL). These thrusters are small, light and powerful, easy to construct and customizable. These unique aspects contributed to the team winning first place in the AIAA<\/a> Small Satellite Poster Competition. The students were supervised by Joseph Wang<\/a>, professor of astronautics and aerospace and mechanical engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Said Asher: \u201cUnlike traditional electric or chemical propulsion technologies, these thrusters are able to scale linearly with the area by increasing the number of emission sites.\u201d In other words, you can increase the level of thrust outputted by increasing the number of emitter tips on the device, a feature not currently possible on other types of propulsion technologies.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Major components of the USC electrospray testbed thruster. Image Credits: Jeffrey Asher.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“The ionic electrospray thruster the team created is an electrostatic propulsion device that operates by extracting and accelerating ions from the propellant using an electric field. The ion extraction is aided by the thruster\u2019s use of a novel liquid propellant, called an ionic liquid. This liquid is highly conductive and freely \u201cgives up\u201d its charge when exposed to an electric field. It also has extremely low vapor pressure, so that it can withstand being directly exposed to the vacuum conditions of space without evaporating.” – USC<\/em><\/p>\n

** AMSAT<\/strong><\/a> news<\/strong> on student and amateur CubeSat\/smallsat projects:<\/p>\n

ANS-243 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin<\/a><\/p>\n