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European Students to Put Microsatellite Into Orbit
Astervitude writes "A Frankenstein's microsatellite made out of parts "donated" by university students across Europe will be launched on September 30 atop a Russian booster. Space.com reports that more than 400 students "spread across 23 universities and 12 countries" spent 18 months designing and building the SSETI Express. While its acronym sounds suspiciously similar to that of a project that seeks to uncover signs of intelligent life beyond Earth, the SSETI or Student Space Exploration Technology Initiative mission is actually part of an effort by the European Space Agency "to boost student interest in space technology and offer some hands-on experience." The satellite itself weighs a mere 136 pounds and is the "size of a small washing machine", as shown in this ESA photo. Visitors to the mission site may want to check out the contest page for ham radio operators to help collect data from the satellite."
From the SSETI Express page:
Payload systems:
The Attitude Control and Determination System controls the attitude of the spacecraft using a pair of magnetorquers and a passive magnet and determines the attitude of the spacecraft using a magnetometer and a pair of sun-sensors.
The camera uses CMOS technology and is capable of taking full colour pictures in the visual range at a ground resolution of about 100m per pixel, with an image size of 1280x1024 pixels. It will be used to take images of the Earth.
The S-Band unit is the secondary communications system. It contains a microwave transmitter and TNC and is capable of 38400bps data downlink, or transponding audio from UHF via three patch antennas (S-Band ANT), acting as a voice repeater for radio amateurs.
T-PODS - These three pods contain the three Cubesat passengers during the launch and coasting phases. After injection they will act as launcher tubes, ejecting the Cubesats from SSETI Express so that they can pursue their own missions.
SSETI Express will carry three small nano-satellites into orbit as passengers. These will be ejected from SSETI Express shortly after the launch, and will then undergo their own, separate, missions.
The three cubesats are:
NCUBE-2 -Developed by the Andøya Rocket Range, Norway. This Cubesat will track boats around the Norwegian coastline (and one reindeer on land).
[I, for one, welcome our new reindeer-tracking overlords!]
UWE-1 - Developed by the University of Würzburg, Germany. This Cubesat will test new communications protocols.
XI-V Developed by the University of Tokyo, Japan. This Cubesat will test commercial off-the-shelf technology and has a camera to take pictures of the Earth.
SSETI Express has two 'radios' on-board.
On UHF 437.250MHz there is a FM transceiver that can transmit and receive the AX25 packet telemetry and payload data at the data rate of 9k6bps. The transceiver produces approx 3 watts of RF output that feeds a canted 1/4 wave whip, which is mounted on the top plate. It incorporates a standard TNC7-Multi to convert the data to and from the OBC. It also has an audio and RSSI feed to the S-Band Tx. It was constructed by Holger Eckardt DF2FQ and is based upon his T7F UHF packet transceiver.
Communications - On S-Band there is a transmitter on 2401.835MHz which can transmit packet data at a data rate of 38k4bps. It can also be configured to work in a voice transponder configuration. It produces approximately 2.5 watts of RF output which feed a three way splitter to the three patch antennas. The enclosure, power splitter and antennas were provided by the University of Wroclaw SSETI team and the electronics were produced by five members of AMSAT-UK. The unit comprises of a switch mode power supply, exciter board, amplifier board, controller board and a sensor board. The TNC is identical to the TNC7 Multi being used in the UHF transceiver except that it is set for a different baud rate.
Typical Groundstation:
To receive data from SSETI Express the requirements are similar to those for previous 9k6 Pacsats.
To receive UHF telemetry, a steerable circularly polarised yagi with 12dBic gain with, preferably, a masthead preamplifier, should be satisfactory for reception of the data . The receiver must have an IF bandwidth of at least 20kHz and an audio output that is taken from the discriminator before any 'shaping'. This audio is then fed into a suitable KISS-enabled TNC which itself is connected to a PC normally via a serial port. To transmit to the satellite (when 'friendly telecommands' have been enabled) an RF output power of 10 watts on UHF should be sufficient.
To receive S-Band data, the antenna gain will need to be more than 21dBic and in this case RHCP (right hand circular polarisation) is a must. Again a mast mounted preamplifier will be required. As the data rate is 38k4bps the IF bandwidth will need to be approx 80kHz together with a K
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
I do not really consider a satellite the size of a washing machine micro. Maybe it should be called mini satellite, so we can make the step to micro a bit later, once it is for example big tower PC sized, so we don't have to step to nano satellites to fast to describe satellites the size of a basketball.
Then again, following Jobs naming scheme: Nano follows on mini.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
It's not quite orbit (yet), but JP Aerospace has been running a PongSat program for the past few years which does something similar. Some of their past missions have gone above 100,000 feet, and would make great science fair projects for students. The description from their page:
A PongSat is an experiment that fits inside of a ping pong ball.
These ping pong ball 'satellites' are flown to the edge of space by balloon or launched in sounding rockets. The PongSats are then returned to the student.
It's an easy and inexpensive way to get students excited about science and engineering.
There are endless possibilities for experiments that can fit inside a ping pong ball. PongSat's can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. Experiments can be as simple as comparing how high a ball bounces before and after being exposed to vacuum. The PongSat can carry seeds to see if exposure to cosmic rays effect their growth. Several small inexpensive computers and other electronics can fit inside a PongSat. These can be used to create a wide range of experiments. Whether carrying a marshmallow to see if it puffs up in the vacuum of near space or an entire sophisticated satellite in miniature, PongSat can create motivation, drive
and passion in the classroom.
PongSats are flown at no cost to the student or school.
Well, it's not that we build small satelites, it's that Americans always need to build big things. Makes me think you're trying to compensate for something... ;-)
launched on September 30 atop a Russian booster
Launching on a Russian Rocket & Booster is so cheap that its one of the best kept secrets... Now that these students have found out that Launching isn't that hard compared to building a Satellite, Serious fun is about to begin...
Let the mass migration of Hackers to hacking and building Satellites begin!
Would you buy gasoline knowing it comes from oil rigs built by slaves of the Saddam's regime?
Think this way: Now they are free, but poor. They get a less-than-fair (but always, some) share of the cash in form of pensions, social support etc. Now in the name of shunning the relics of the regime you can let them starve and let all their hard work go to waste, or get the sats to fly, give these people some well-deserved money and understand, the tech as such is not evil nor guilty, and now as the regime is gone, there's no real reason not to use it.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
I would not call Europe communist in general. Granted, we *are* more to the left - way more - than the US. But the fundamental difference is that we *do* have ownership rights, can start private companies, and there is a free market.
However, we do have more things that are deemed to be the responsibility of the society. Things like education. Things like health service. Things that everyone generally need.
I think this is a good thing. It (tries to) give everyone equal opportunity, regardless if they come from a rich or a poor family. Of course, it's not absolute, there are still private health service, there's private schools. But the general idea is that there are some fundamental rights people have, that the government should provide.
Other than that, I (as a european) does not feel particularily that I live in a communist country.
But for a country where everything is so much skewed to the right as in US, I guess that everything else is communist...
High resolution photos of your girlfriend, relaxing on the beach.
Since the resolution of the camera is 100m per pixel, that must be a pretty large girlfriend.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
Well, it's not that we build small satelites, it's that Americans always need to build big things. Makes me think you're trying to compensate for something...
Not at all, we have some really huge pricks in government.