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
XI-IV by University of Tokyo, Japan
From 1st Batch: 2 Japanese
CubeSats, both successful
•Gathering the satellite health
information via beacon signal
•Command uplink & data downlink
•Telemetry data broadcasting service
•On-orbit verification of the commercialoff-the-shell (COTS) components.
CUTE-I by Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
“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
Images from XI-V (2nd batch) University of Tokyo
backup for XI-IV camera was improved
© ISSL, University of Tokyo, JAPAN
DTUsat by Technical University of Denmark
2 failed CubeSats,
No contact established
•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
CanX-1 by University of Toronto, Canada
•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
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•
•
•
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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
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–
–
–
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 twoyear 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-2
Denmark, 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
3
Delfi-C 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 1
Kids Aren’t Too Young for Satellites
Stanford University
• Educational purposes
UCISat 1
University of California
• Camera
• Gradient stabilization
• Magnetorquers and/or magnometer
Mars Gravity BioSatellite
MIT & University of Queensland, Australia - 2009
• *Not a CubeSat
• Martian gravity Simulation for mice
Q&A
Thanks for coming!
Any ideas?