Good progress is being made on the technical reports and some important design decisions have been made. Shahzad has come up with the preliminary structural design and Alex has designed the ADCS. It is likely that the ADCS will be able to be built 'in house' which will clearly reduce development costs. The structural design of the platform that Shahzad has selected is referred to as a 'double mono-block', (where the cube is cut in half along its diagonal). This allows for a flexible modular design.

In other developments, work is continuing into the electronics requirements of the satellite. The possibility of using a linux based architecture is being explored. 

The project team has arranged to meet on thursday 18th December to review all technical reports completed to date before they have to be submitted on the 19th. 

Work is developing on a 'synopsis' page that describes the KUbeSat programme and platform. This is in support of generating funding in the new year from local businesses and industry.

Technical reports will continue to be written into the new year before more in depth design decisions can be made.

5th December Update

This week has been somewhat busy, the initial technical reports are coming along well. Discussion were held to extend the deadline for these reports as other external factors has caused a work build up has become unfeasible to compile the technical reports to a high standard. On the 19th December a report will be submitted by each member of the team concerning their designated subsystem. This two week extension should give all engineers ample time to fulfill the necessary requirements.

The second technical reports have been pushed back to have a deadline of the 6th of January, by doing this it has given the team some breathing space to rpoduce high quality work.

The local funding research, which had been designated to Chris Blower has been put on hold as a data pack needs to be distributed to the potential sponsor along with the covering letter. As neither of these generic products have been generated yet, no external contact has been made. The flyer is due to be contructed during the month of december, running parallel with the other tasks set within the group. Contact to these companies will commence in early January.

Due to absences the Logo and Mission patch are yet to be completed and due to be finished by next weeks meeting.

Research concerning gaining an amateur radio license for the university is currently being undertaken and information identified concerning the requirements will be stated at next weeks meeting.

This week a meeting was held with Gordana Collier, an electronics expert based at Kingston University concerning the flight module which would be on board the KEbeSat during its orbital mission. From the discussion a potential funding was avaliable for the engineers to gain for the KUbeSat, however as the project is still within the early stages, the team was unable to give a fully defined specification of requirements for this module. Research into this is still being undertaken at a relatively high level. In depth information will need to be collected and understood fully prior or ordering any components as at a price of $1200 at time, no room is avaliable for ordering incorrect components.

Overall this week has been productive and the project is moving the right direction. No new actions were identified and the main alterations to the project was the teams agreed deadline dates for the Technical Reports.

That's all for this week.

Regards KUbeSat Team

Project Update

The project team has been very busy, and is now in the full swing of the satellite programme. 

We completed a presentation discussing our project to visiting fellow Dr. John Farrow from the International Space University (ISU), Strasbourg on Monday 17th November. Overall the presentation went well. Constructive feedback was given about the depth and detail of sub system requirements which was taken on board and will be addressed as the project develops. 

Research activities have now begun and good progress is being made.

Chris is focussing on the communications sub system.

Jack's research focus is centered around what facilities that are required to develop the satellite.

Ben is investigating the ground station that will be built.

Mohsin is analysing deployment mechanisms.

Shahzad is researching the satellite structure.

Each research activity will result in a technical report, the first of which will be delivered next week.

Welcome to KUbeSat

Welcome to the Kingston University KUbeSat (pronounced 'kay-yoob sat') Programme.

6 Masters students from Kingston University in London have recently come together in their final year with the collective aim of within 3 years sending a satellite into space.

We were set this challenge as a final year group project and hope to set up a sustainable programme at Kingston University to allow future students to get practical experience in the design, manufacture, build, testing and operation of spacecraft.

The first satellite is to be launched within 3-5 years and by the end of the first year, a programme shall be in place that allows students to continue the work that we have started, in addition to a preliminary design of the first satellite, named KUbeSat-1. This programme will be surplus to the current Aerospace Engineering and Astronautics course run at Kingston University, and will include teaching slots, laboratory/cleanroom sessions and testing facilities, among other things.

The six students currently involved are:

Jack Burrell (project co-ordinator)  

Alexander Wigg (deputy co-ordinator)

Benjamin Hall

Shahzad Khan

Mohsin Javed

Chris Blower

Our project co-ordinator and advisor is Dr Chris Welch, principle lecturer in Astronautics and Space Systems at Kingston University.

We have collectively decided to design a Kingston University-specific platform based on the CubeSat design, originally developed as a joint project by CalPoly and Stanford Universities. A CubeSat is a pico-satellite measuring 10 x 10 x 10 cm, with a mass of no more than 1 kg (1U option). The CubeSat can be extended in one dimension to 20 or 30 cm, with a proportional increase in mass, named 2U and 3U options respectively. CubeSats have very low launch costs due to their low mass and so are becoming very projects among universities all over the world.

Our primary objective for the satellite has been established as follows:

'To set up and sustain a Kingston University 'KUbeSat' programme and launch the first satellite within 3 to 5 years'

 

The secondary objectives are as follows:

'To demonstrate Kingston University's credentials as a leading educational establishment within the UK and Europe'

'To train students in the design, integration, testing and operation of spacecraft'

'To train students to successfully project manage the programme including securing and managing a budget'

'To provide a payload that is of benefit to student research and/or local industry'

'To have partners in industry who provide technical advise and support to the programme'

'To use the satellite to promote educational outreach initiatives in local schools'

'To set up and sustain 'in house' capability to build the satellite infrastructure'

'To develop partnerships with other educational establishments nationally and internationally' 

The group has divided up into two teams of three:

Jack, Ben and Chris are focussing on the setting up of a long term infrastructure within the university, enabling future students to design and build their own KUbeSats.

Alex, Mohsin and Shahzad shall begin preliminary design of KUbeSat-1, including its payload and a modular 'plug and play' subsystem architecture that can be used on subsequent KUbeSat missions. 

To date, we have written a preliminary specification, detailing all subsystem requirements and constraints, project strategy, phases, deliverables for the first year and long & short term Gantt charts for the programme.

We shall shortly be presenting to Dr John Farrow, a visiting fellow from the International Space University, Strasbourg, and a number of industry representatives.

Our aims for near future include a presentation to the Dean of the university in order to try and secure funding for the first two years of the project. 

We also shall be submitting an abstract for a chance to present at the ESA CubeSat Workshop to be held 20-22 January 2009 at ESTEC, Holland. This will allow us to meet, and share our ideas, with other CubeSat developers around Europe. Deadline for the submission of abstracts is the 30th November. 

Check back on a regular basis for more KUbeSat news.

The KUbeSat Team