15th Group Meeting

Work continues on the KubeSat programme at regular pace. Chris Blower developed some STK (Satellite Tool Kit) plots on the size and orientation of potential orbits wherein he stated that an orbit with an altitude of 900 km with an inclination of 72 degrees will give the maximum coverage of 52000 seconds a week which roughly translates into 8.65% of the orbital period.

Alex reported with some useful data on image sensors as received from Aptina stating parameters of one such model. It was also benefitting to get an idea of the cost and their operational temperature range.

Jack will write a technical report on the software code wherein a feasibility study will be conducted to assess the capabilites of National Instruments' equipment and establish whether it is possible to develop one and export it to a General data target board. Meanwhile work continues as normal for Shahzad, Mohsin and Ben.

Work has continued this week in all areas. Technical reports into thermal control and communications are nearly finished; allowing for a detailed design analysis and trade-off study to be completed in support of the generic KUbeSat design.

Work continues with payload component selection with developments expected next week as suppliers get back to the project team with costing estimates.

The KUbeSat programme synopsis is close to completion, with issue 2 currently moving through the formal review process. It is anticipated that this will be finished next week, when a link to the page will be made available from this site. Watch this space!

In other news, work continues into ground station development with site surveys hampered by the recent inclement weather. This will be completed soon and represents a major milestone in the KUbeSat project evolution. Also this week, efforts have been to re-new the amateur radio licence held by Dr. Chris Welch, so that he can operate the ground station.

Finally, research into equipping Kingston University with a cleanroom facility has been completed, with initial indications suggesting that a three man room could be installed relatively cheaply. This is an important finding as a cleanroom not only supports the development of KUbeSat, but also helps address some of the project team's objectives.

The team have been active over the last week, with developments being made in all sections.

The Synopsis is near completion and is expected to be ready for distribution as the the upcoming week.

The technical research and reports are coming along well with developments being made in the power systems, and the thermal controls initial review completed by the teams next meeting. The first stage of the payload selection and review has been finalised and consequently allowing the component selection process to begin. This will be coming into further detail over the next few weeks.

For developments of the Kingston University Campus, the facilities review has now been completed with research and reviews being made into the installation of a clean room for the KUbeSat to be developed within.

Overall the project is making good progress and in future weeks will have a good foundation for the KUbeSat programme to be set upon.

28th January 2009: Update

The group is now moving into the second semester, meaning that the academic year is more than half way through. As a result of new timetables, the group design meetings are to be rescheduled for Mondays.

Chris Welch, project supervisor, shall hopefully be attending a CubeSat Development Workshop in California at the end of April. This would permit sharing of ideas and discussions with many other CubeSat developers around the world. Such an opportunity would definitely be of benefit for the KUbeSat groups in academic years to come.

Technical reports for thermal control, power systems and payload are nearing completion, allowing design decisions and provisional selection of components to be made. Further structural analysis is to be carried out and the feasibility of using a vibration table at Penrhyn Road campus is to be investigated.

A KUbeSat Programme synopsis has been created, which is simply a project summary document to be supplied to interested parties and students. This serves the purpose of generating interest in the project while providing key information and group contact details for those people who wish to learn more or somehow become involved in the programme themselves.

  

Considerable progress has been made with regard to allocation of work for KUbeSat. I have taken over structures, wherein further research into the structural design of a CubeSat will be undertaken. In this regard, vibrational and other environmental requirements will be taken account of. This will then be supplemented with a Stress/Strain Analysis of the basic KUbeSat structure. Jack has offered to write two technical reports; one on Clean Room and the other on gauging the advantages/disadvantages and suitability of prototyping software into a smaller architecture since purchasing one would be too expensive. Alex is to finish up his TR on Payload subsystem by this week whih will be reviewed by the group. Chris has offered to look into the modalities of installing an antenna mast at Roevale. All in all we're in good shape for next meeting.

The project team has recently returned from the christmas holidays and work is now resumed, but before the holidays, the team submitted their required technical reports on Facilities, Communications, Satellite Deployment, ADCS, Structure and Ground Station. Jack Burrell has made a rough solidworks model of a double monoblock structure for the KUbesat to give the team a greater familiarity of the shape than what a simple 2-D drawing would provide. It has been established that the manufacturing facilities available at Roehampton Vale Campus are adequate for fabrication of the satellite structure. Formal contact has been established with AMSAT-UK for ground station related information. The team is also evaluating the feasibility of installing a communications tower on university grounds. Such an undertaking will have to involve approval from the university adminsitration and the local Council as well as substantial funds.

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.