Vibration testing of the Vietnamese PicoDragon CubeSat – Image Credit VNSC

Five new CubeSats being developed in Taiwan, Vietnam and the United States are hoping to fly during 2013.

Taiwan – PACE

PACE is the first nanosatellite developed the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) of Taiwan and has the objective to provide a platform for attitude control experiments in space.

Several common types of attitude sensors and actuators have been developed from scratch for implementation into this miniature satellite to allow the evaluation of different attitude determination and control methods for nanosatellites in space. The attitude flight software can be updated from ground to adjust parameters or even upload an entirely different control strategy.

The data obtained from this mission shall be used to improve simulation models for nanosatellites in low-earth orbit and to verify the newly developed satellite in space. The PACE satellite is developed in an educational framework and part of its objective is therefore to educate students and to promote space technology and its use to the public.

The team encourage and anticipate the involvement of students and radio amateurs in the mission, such as beacon and data reception and interpretation.

A 2U CubeSat proposing to use a UHF system on 437.485 MHz with 1k2 FSK downlink at 1 watt of output power. A Q2 2013 launch by Interorbital Systems is planned.

More info from http://satellite.ncku.edu.tw/pace/en/home.htm

Taiwan – TARO

TARO is a 2U CubeSat developed by the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) of Taiwan. TARO is the precursor of PACE satellite which was also developed by NCKU and has an objective to verify the function of sensors and actuators which have been used at PACE.

The TARO project is developed in an educational framework and part of its objective is therefore to educate students and to promote space technology and its use to the public. The team encourage and anticipate the involvement of students and radio amateurs in the mission, such as beacon and data reception and interpretation.

Proposing to use a UHF system on 437.485 MHz with 1k2 FSK downlink at 1 watt of output power. A Q2 2013 launch by Interorbital Systems is planned.

More info from http://satellite.ncku.edu.tw/pace/en/home.htm

Vietnam – PicoDragon

PicoDragon is a 1U CubeSat project intended to take low resolution earth images and to test on board systems. Planning to use two UHF transmitters. One 100mW CW beacon on 437.250 MHz and a 1k2 AFSK 800mW AX25 telemetry downlink. Commands will be uplinked on VHF.

VNSC say that Pico-satellite Dragon is expected to launch in mid-2013 by a Japanese rocket.

More info at http://vnsc.org.vn/

United States, Alabama – ChargerSat-1

The primary mission is to perform a technology demonstration of gravity gradient stabilization, improved solar collection and improved horizon communications on a pico-satellite. This is the team’s first CubeSat and is a technology demonstration of their capabilities as students.

A 1U CubeSat proposing to use UHF with 1 watt and 9k6 G3RUH FSK modulation for the downlink. Planned for a mid 2013 launch on a Minotair-1 into a 500×500 km orbit @ 40.5 degree inclination. Also on the same launch are Lunar CubeSat, PhoneSat, Trailblazer, TJ3Sat, DragonSat-1, COPPER, SwampSat, CAPE-2, Ho’oponopono-2, NPS-SCAT, Blacknight-1 and KYSat-2.

More information from http://space.uah.edu/

United States, California – SNAPS

This spacecraft has dimensions of 25x113x113mm, has a mass of less than 0.5kg and is intended to image other CubeSats autonomously using H264 compression. The team is proposing a UHF downlink using 9k6 AFSK and will utilize Carpcomm ground stations.

Planned for a SpaceX flight from Vandenberg AFB in April 2013 together with POPACS.