Apr 10 2012

CubeSats at the Naval Postgraduate School

Researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) hope to get one of their own CubeSats into space for the first time on the Operationally Unique Technologies Satellite (OUTSat) mission slated for launch, along with 10 other CubeSats, in August 2012.

At 19:08 into the following video is a segment that covers the two NPS projects that are scheduled to head to space in August of this year. One is a CubeSat, a small satellite destined for Low Earth Orbit, and the other, the NPS CubeSat Launcher or NPSCuL, is the payload platform that will carry it there.

Watch INSIDE NPS April 2012

NPS CubeSat Prepares to See Space By Way of New Payload Platform
http://www.nps.edu/About/News/NPS-CubeSat-Prepares-to-See-Space-By-Way-of-New-Payload-Platform-.html

Apr 9 2012

Integrated Solar Panel Antennas for Cubesats

5GHz Fabricated Antenna

A paper by Mahmoud N. Mahmoud presents an innovative solution for small satellite antennas by integrating slot antennas and solar cells on the same panel to save small satellite surface real estate and to replace deployed wire antennas for certain operational frequencies.

The two main advantages of the proposed antenna are:
1) the antenna does not require an expensive deployment mechanism that is required by dipole antennas;
2) the antenna does not occupy as much valuable surface real estate as patch antennas.

The antenna design is based on using the spacing between the solar cells to etch slots in these spaces to create radiating elements for 2.4 or 5 GHz.

Read the paper at http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1738&context=etd

Apr 9 2012

Flexible Solar Panel Deployment for CubeSat

Senior design project to incorporate flexible solar panels in a CubeSat. The mechanism consists of a rack and gear spring loaded mechanism to release the rolled up solar panel.

Watch Flexible Solar Panel Deployment for CubeSat

Apr 9 2012

PY4ZBZ captures stunning image from Noaa 15 using AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle.

Roland (PY4ZBZ) used an AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle VHF/UHF software defined radio to capture this stunning image from Noaa 15

Noaa 15 Image

“NOAA-15 vertical pass over my QTH
Sete Lagoas GH70un Brasil
Received with FCD+DCA antenna+Spectravue”

The FUNcube Dongle was developed as part of the educational outreach for AMSAT-UK FUNcube satellite project. Although it was designed to enable school students to receive the satellite beacon the wide frequency coverage of 64 – 1700MHz has meant that it can be used for many other applications.

The AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle VHF/UHF SDR is available at http://www.FUNcubeDongle.com/
It is also sold by Martin Lynch & Sons (ML&S) at http://tinyurl.com/MLandS-FCD

FUNcube Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FUNcube

Apr 8 2012

Yuri’s Night April 12

Yuri’s Night is a celebration of humanity’s achievements in space, with hundreds of parties and events held around the world each April.

Yuri’s Night was first held on April 12, 2001, on the 40th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space and the 20th anniversary of the launch of the first space shuttle, STS-1.

The event draws tens of thousands of space explorers, artists, engineers, musicians, scientists and partygoers from around the world each year. At the flagship event hosted by the NASA Ames Research Center in 2010, over 12,000 space fans and students attended. Yuri’s Night was created by Loretta Hidalgo and George Whitesides.