• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s first student-developed satellite • The first satellite completely developed in the state of Illinois …as far as we know • A fully independent spacecraft • A double CubeSat (smaller than a shoebox at 4” x 4” x 8”) • Launching from Baikonur, Kazakhstan using the Russian DNEPR-1 launch vehicle, a converted ICBM
• Entirely by U of I students including project leadership, design, development, and testing • Over the course of four years • By 100 students across 7 engineering disciplines including Electrical, Computer, Aerospace, Computer Science, Mechanical, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and General Engineering • By a combination of undergraduate (3/4) and graduate students (1/4)
• Measuring molecular oxygen airglow emissions in the Earth’s mesosphere • Performing the first space test of Alameda’s micro-vacuum arc thrusters • Performing the first space test of Tether Application’s SID processor board • Performing Earth imaging using a CMOS camera • Demonstrating attitude stabilization on a CubeSat
• A photometer, a CMOS camera, batteries, solar panels, a processor, memory, an antenna, a radio, a modem, thrusters, torque coils, a 3 axis magnetic field sensor, temperature sensors, voltage and current sensors, etc… • A custom power system, attitude control system, operating system, file system, and communications protocol • A ground station on campus with an active antenna tracking system
• Functional testing • Environmental testing including vibration and thermal-vacuum • Integrated system operational testing • A bake out procedure
• Overcoming strict resource limitations on space, mass, power, data transfer, expertise, and funding • Protecting components from radiation that causes upsets and erosion • Avoiding depressurization problems (out gassing) that leads to component failures and clouded optics • Adjusting for Doppler shift in communications frequency as the satellite passes overhead at 8 km/s • Distributing heat without air convection
• Specific technical skills in their specialty area • How to build complex systems like satellites • To work with engineers from other disciplines • To work on a large multi-team project • Teamwork, leadership, formal and informal communication skills
• Has over forty universities registered with plans to develop CubeSats since about 1999 • Cooperates to launch hardware together and shares technical information openly • Has launched six CubeSats so far with 14 planned on the next launch (including ION) • Can perform high risk missions that commercial and government organizations cannot • Can develop satellites in as little as 1 to 2 years
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