STUDENTS: LAUNCHING CUBESATS!
Introduction to the Project
PROJECT HORUS
Remote Sensing for Agriculture
Effect of drought on wheat crops in Western Australia
Importance of Satellites to Australia
Weather Forecasting Communications
Jabiru-2 communications Satellite – late 2014
CubeSats compared to Satellites
Satellites
Can be big - size of bus
Can be expensiveMulit-millions to billions of dollars for interplanetary missions
Usually has its own rocket for launching
CubeSats
Small – cube 10cm on one side and usually weighs about 1kg
Made of off the shelf electronics
A full space launch of a CubeSat is about $100,000, although space agencies do offer free launches
Piggy-backs on a launch vehicle
1U CubeSat in space (10cm on side) Launch mass 1kgNASA Aqua Satellite4.81m x 16.70m x 8.04m, Launch mass 2,934kg
High altitude balloon launches can reach heights of over 30km – a third of the way to space and very much cheaper than a full space launch!
Sometimes balloon launches can be used for unusual objects
Yoyo in space Chair in Space!
High Altitude Balloons as Launch Vehicles
And you can do this as well!
In this project you will fly your own CubeSat on a high altitude balloon and take your own spectacular pictures!
Technical or engineering aspects such as launch parameters and correct operation of the payload
Scientific aspects – what useful experiments/observations can be done using the equipment available
CubeSat Project
Your brief is to design, develop and fly your CubeSat, using a high-altitude balloon as your launch vehicle and undertake experiments that you will design and analyse
You need to take into account:
Sometimes there is conflict between technical and scientific aspects
GoPro camera can be aligned in a number of ways but because of stacking of CubeSats only bottom CubeStat can have camera pointing down – which direction other cameras and why?
Memory card – how much data can be stored?
Matching GPS data with images
Some Design Issues
Plus others that you will find out about as you go through the design process!