Tag Archives: CubeSat

Mar 31 2012

MicroThrust Motor for Nanosats

Imagine reaching the Moon using just a tenth of a liter of fuel. With their ionic motor, MicroThrust, EPFL scientists and their European partners are making this a reality, ushering in a new era of low-cost space exploration.

Watch EPFL – A Couple Drops of Fuel to Get to the Moon with MicroThrust

The goal is to provide efficient propulsion systems for nanosatellites (1-100 kg), which are currently stuck in whatever orbit they were initially placed: the plan is to free them to allow nanosatellites to perform orbital maneuvering, and missions to the Moon, to Near Earth Objects, or even to Mars.

Read Micromachined Propulsion systems for very small satellites http://lmts.epfl.ch/microthrust

Mar 28 2012

ESA – CubeSats satellite operations update

Members of XaTcobeo team at ground station

Members of the XaTcobeo CubeSat team at the ground station

ESA have issued an update on the amateur radio CubeSats that were launched on February 13.

Since the launch ESA’s Education Office has maintained frequent contacts with the student teams to follow the progress of their satellite operations.

For each team, this is the first hands-on experience of operating an orbiting satellite, and some of them have had to deal with some challenging difficulties.

Read the ESA report at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education/SEM2KRGY50H_0.html

Mar 28 2012

Student CubeSats BEESAT-2 and BEESAT-3

BEESAT-1 Engineering Qualification Model

BEESAT-1 Engineering Qualification Model

Two CubeSats, built by students at the Technical University of Berlin, are expected to launch in the 4th quarter of 2012 from Baikonour into a 575km circular 65 degree orbit.

BEESAT-2 is a 1U cubesat project intended to test a reaction wheel and an Attitude Determination and Control (ADC) system. Will also carry an experimental camera.

BEESAT-3 is a 1U cubesat project intended to test a transmitter using commercial S Band frequencies outside the amateur satellite service.

Up- and downlink of both of these CubeSats is established by half-duplex GMSK modulated narrow-band radio at 436.000 MHz. The standard data rate is 4800 bps but can be switched to 9800 bps for increased channel capacity at higher elevations. Each transmission at the higher data rate is announced by a small 4800 bps header to allow for adaptive receiver re-configuration. The modem device used is the CML CMX909b.

For more information see http://tinyurl.com/TUB-BEESAT

IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination pages hosted by AMSAT-UK http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/

Mar 28 2012

HumSAT-D CubeSat

HumSAT Mission Concept

HumSAT Mission Concept

HumSAT-D is a 1U CubeSat mission developed by the University of Vigo. It is planning to use MSK telemetry and a CW beacon on UHF. The main mission is educational: to provide a hands-on experience to the students in the complete process of developing a space mission.

The other goal is to demonstrate the validity of the concept of HumSAT. A new subsystem to collect data from sensors located on the ground, store on-board and transmit it to ground stations will be developed and validated in orbit.

Universities and amateurs are invited to develop their own sensors compatible with HumSAT.

HumSAT-D is planning a launch from Russia into a Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at 700km.

HumSAT System

The main purpose of the HumSAT system is the development of a satellite-based system for connecting a set of users with a network of worldwide distributed sensors which they have previously deployed.

Sensors will be responsible for acquiring user data and for transmitting it to the satellites through an standard radio interface (SSI interface, definition of this interface is published here). Users will be able to define their own sensors, for monitoring different types of parameters; for example, water temperature or wind speed.

For retrieving data from the satellites, the GENSO network of ground stations will be one of the core components of the data distribution system. Several universities from different ESA member states, Japan and USA are coperating in this project, whose second release (R2) is expected to provide the functionalities that the HumSAT system will require. For more information about the GENSO project, please visit the www.genso.org website.

Once data has been transported by HumSAT satellites, authorized users will be able to access it through an Internet connection. Several security restrictions shall be applied for guaranteeing a correct access to the data gathered.

HumSAT http://www.humsat.org/

HumSAT: example for international cooperation in small satellite missions
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/bst/ISU-SSP2011/Small-Sats-_v1-Graz-26-07-2011-ISU.pdf

IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination pages hosted by AMSAT-UK http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/

Mar 28 2012

Latest QB50 Newsletter-CubeSat Proposals deadline extended until 30 April

I

Logo QB50Newsletter 26 March 2012

In This Issue

  1. 1  Call for CubeSat Proposals for QB50
  2. 2  Ground Station Network and

    Frequency Allocation Working Group

  3. 3  Sensor Selection Working Group
  4. 4  Orbital Dynamics Working Group
  5. 5  GAMANET and GAMALINK
  6. 6  QB50 Workshops

          7 Environmental test facilities of interest to participate in QB50, not only those who              submitted a Letters of Intent (LoI).

  1. 8  European CubeSat Symposia

  2. 9  CubeSat related conferences in 2012

    QB50 Newsletter can be downloaded HERE

Mar 27 2012

Watching space weather through the MAGIC of CubeSat CINEMA

 

A trio of CubeSats that will study the effects of space weather on the Earth’s radiation belts and magnetic field are being prepared for launch. TRIO-CINEMA is a collaboration between UC Berkeley, Kyung Hee University and Imperial College London. The first CINEMA CubeSat passed acceptance testing in January 2012 and will launch in mid-2012.

 

The Full article can be found Here