Excelsior Club Presents

Past and Present

CubeSat Missions

October 11th, 2006

Acronyms

• OSCAR = orbiting satellite carrying amateur radio sponsored by AMSAT

• COTS = commercial of the shelf software or hardware

• AODC = attitude and orbit determination and control system

Some Past CubeSats• 1st Batch of 6 CubeSats= 2003 Eurockot LV from

Plesetsk, Russia

• 2nd Batch of 3 CubeSats= 2005 Kosmos-3M LV from Plesetsk, Russia

• Single CubeSat launch = 2006 M-V LV from Uchinoura, Japan

• Attempted 3rd Batch of 14 CubeSats = July 2006 DNEPR LV (Belka) from Baikonur, Kazakhstan Launch vehicle disintegrated during launch.

• 4th Batch of 7 CubeSats = Scheduled for September 2006 DNEPR LV (EgyptSat) from Baikonur, Kazakhstan

“Our Titech CubeSat project is coded "CUTE" (CUbical Titech Engineering satellite) project. "CUTE" also means our CubeSat is cute!”•Mission: Test platform based on COTS components.

•Camera used as sun sensor

•Pictures from camera could not be transmitted to the ground

CUTE-I by Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

XI-IV by University of Tokyo, Japan

•Gathering the satellite health information via beacon signal•Command uplink & data downlink•Telemetry data broadcasting service•On-orbit verification of the commercial-off-the-shell (COTS) components.

From 1st Batch: 2 Japanese CubeSats, both successful

Images from XI-V (2nd batch) University of Tokyo backup for XI-IV camera was improved

© ISSL, University of Tokyo, JAPAN

2 failed CubeSats,

No contact established

CanX-1 by University of Toronto, Canada

•600 m Tether = control satellite without fuel

•Dummy camera to simulate mass (camera no finished in time)

•The Attitude Control and Determinination System (ACDS)

•Magnetorquers

•5 sun angle sensors, one on each face of the satellite except payload face

•Magnetometer for measuring strength and direction of magnetic field

DTUsat by Technical University of Denmark

•Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiments

•testing of low-cost space technologies

•A Powerful CubeSat Computer based on an Atmel ARM microprocessor.

•Triple-Junction GaAs Solar Cells with Peak Power Tracking

•CMOS imagers for observation and Star Tracking

•Active Magnetic Control including B-dot Detumbling and 3-axis stabilization

QuakeSat by Stanford University and Quakesat LLC, USA

•1 Million Dollar satellite, Triple CubeSat

•Detect ELF radio emission of sismic activity during earthquakes

•Had deployable solar panels, and a magnetometer mounted on a 60 cm boom

•The s/c was designed using COTS components.

•Designed for 6 months, it worked flawlessly until at least June 6th, 2004 (more than 11 months)

•Now is still working nominally

From 1st Batch

CUTE 1.7 + APD by Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

• Single launched double CubeSat (Feb 22nd 2006)

• Test of charged particle detector (Avalance Photo Diode sensor module), made by Tokyo Institute of Technology.

• Due to low perigee (about 300 km at launch) expected lifetime is significantly less than one year

• Nominal operations. Had some problems in early March 2006, it was since fully recovered, but since April 2006 no longer responds to commands from the ground.

• Experimental 10m tether and electron emitter to change orbit

– Copied from DTUsat?

– Over 10m tether deployment

– Sensing tether deployment

– Electric power transmission via structure

From failed launch• ION by University of Illionis, USA

– Features a Photomultiplier Tube (PMT) to observe airglow phenomenon in the earth's upper atmosphere (mesosphere). Also has a low-thrust, electric propulsion system and a CMOS camera for Earth imaging.

• RINCON 1 by University of Arizona, USA – The payload is a low-power beacon system,

which provides a redundant means of relaying sensor data in analog form if the primary (digital) transmitter fails.

From failed launch (cont.)

• AeroCube-1 by the Aerospace Corporation, USA – Short life satellite (10 days), using Lithium batteries as

primary batteries (no recharging). Mission is to test a communication system and the system bus plus a suite of CMOS cameras done by Harvey Mudd College. The satellite has no deployables. Instead an omnidirectional patch antenna is used.

• CP2 by California Polytechnic Institute, USA – Energy Dissipation Experiment

• Sacred by University of Arizona, USA – measure the total amount of high-energy radiation over a two-

year span and will test the radiation properties of four commercial integrated circuits

• KUTEsat Pathfinder by University of Kansas, USA – Measure the radiation in LEO and take photographs with an

onboard camera • MEROPE by Montana State University, USA

– Radiation experiment (no more information about it on website…)?

• ICE Cube 1 and 2 by Cornell University (New York state), USA – Perform GPS scintillation science by measuring fluctuations in

the signals that the GPS satellites emit when the signals pass through the ionosphere. Identical to ICE Cube 2

• SEEDS by Nihon University, Japan – Contains a gyro sensor for accurate determination of attitude

motion

• HAUSAT 1 by Hankuk Aviation University, South Korea – GPS receiver, experiment on deployment mechanism of

solar cell panel and space verification of homemade sun sensor

• CP1 by California Polytechnic Institute, USA – Test of sun sensor developed by Optical Energy

Technologies • Mea Huaka (Voyager) by University of Hawaii, USA

– To test a 5.8-GHz active antenna (grid oscillator) for high bandwidth communication (does not require deployment of antenna)

• NCube1 by Norwegian University of Science and Technology – Raindeer……….

Fourth Batch = full of mysteries and was scheduled to launch in September 2006

• CP4 by California Polytechnic Institute, USA

– No transmitter….?

• CAPE-1 by University of Louisiana, USA

– ??? Seriously no info on actual mission

• CP3 by California Polytechnic Institute, USA

– Three-axis magnetorquing experiment

• Libertad-1 (Freedom 1) by University of Sergio Arboleda, Columbia – Camera and transmission of one stanza of the Colombian national

anthem.This is the first Colombian satellite

• CSTB-1 by The Boeing Company, USA

– Big secret apparently

• MAST by Tethers Unlimited, USA

– Something to do with a triple cubesat held together with tethers

More failed cubesats• AAUsat by Ålborg University, Denmark

– CMOS Camera, Sun sensors, magnetometer, and magnetorquers

– The antennas short-circuited resulting in poor communication performance so only weak beacon signals were received. Also simple two-way communication was established (pinging).Batteries slowly died beginning after slightly more than one month in orbit due to poor packaging (punch-pack).

• NCube2 by Norwegian University of Science and Technology

– payload consists of an Automatic Identification System. AIS is a mandatory system on all larger ships, which transmits identification and position data messages. The satellite will redirect these messages along with messages from Norwegean reindeer collars.

AAUsat-2Denmark, August 2007

• Magnetic coils and momentum wheels

– stabilize the satellite

– control of the attitude in space

• Gamma Ray Detector

Delfi-C3

Delft University of Technology, Holland June 2007

• Thin film solar cell experiment

• Autonomous wireless sun sensor

• Advanced Transceiver Experiment

Delfi-C3 - Triple CubeSat

DTUsat-2 Technical University of Denmark August 2007

• Tracking of migrating Cuckoo birds

• A small 5-8 g transmitter will be mounted on a number of birds

• sun sensors, magnetometer and magnetorquers

                 

                    

 

KatySat 1Kids Aren’t Too Young for Satellites

Stanford University • Educational purposes

UCISat 1 University of California

• Camera

• Gradient stabilization

• Magnetorquers and/or magnometer

Mars Gravity BioSatelliteMIT & University of Queensland, Australia - 2009

• *Not a CubeSat• Martian gravity Simulation for mice

Q & A

Thanks for coming!

Any ideas?