Североамериканские университетские малые КА

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Emerging Optics Technology to Fly on Microsatellite
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/kitchen-optics.html

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http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1206/21venture/

NASA funds satellite mission to measure hurricane winds[/size]
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: June 21, 2012

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NASA's decision this week to fund a University of Michigan proposal to build a small satellite constellation, the first full mission award in the agency's low-cost Venture-class Earth science program, could help forecasters predict the intensification of tropical cyclones.


Artist's concept of a spacecraft in the CYGNSS constellation. Credit: Chris Ruf/University of Michigan
 
Data from the mission will help researchers study how tropical cyclones grow stronger over warm ocean waters, and meteorologists could use real-time information to help formulate hurricane forecasts.

The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System, or CYGNSS, will receive $151.7 million from NASA over the next five years. Eight microsatellites will launch together in 2017 on a single rocket, then deploy in low Earth orbit.

Cyclones are energized by warm waters, and the CYGNSS mission will observe the interaction between the atmosphere and the sea driving their intensification.

Chris Ruf, the mission's principal investigator from the University of Michigan, said the project's goal is to improve hurricane forecasting.

The eight CYGNSS satellites will be built by Southwest Research Institute of Texas. Surrey Satellite Technology of Colorado, the U.S. subsidiary of the British spacecraft-builder, will provide GPS receivers for the mission.

CYGNSS will use GPS signals to derive the roughness of the ocean surface, from which wind speed is retrieved, according to NASA.

The satellites will make measurements similar to the QuikSCAT satellite, which lost the use of its spinning radar scatterometer instrument in 2009. During its 10-year mission, QuikSCAT detected wind speed and direction over 90 percent of the Earth's surface every day.

QuikSCAT data measurably improved hurricane forecasting models and the increased the accuracy of intensity predictions, particularly for storms in the open ocean out of range of reconnaissance airplanes and terrestrial radars.


An image from QuikSCAT shows the wind speeds inside Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Credit: NOAA/NASA-JPL
 
Since QuikSCAT's loss, forecasters at NOAA's National Hurricane Center have struggled to find a suitable replacement. NOAA has not funded the construction of another QuikSCAT satellite.

Trials with a radar payload on India's Oceansat 2 spacecraft should finish soon, allowing its wind measurements to be included in the tools used by U.S. meteorologists.

Although it uses a different detection technique, the CYGNSS mission will likely be the next U.S. satellite project able to provide accurate data on winds inside tropical cyclones, but Ruf said scientists are still studying how similar the CYGNSS measurements will be to QuikSCAT's results.

CYGNSS is the first full mission selection in NASA's Earth Venture program. NASA officials receive proposals from the science community and select a winner during each Venture-class competition.

The Earth Venture initiative is designed to increase the flight rate in NASA's Earth science program, which operates a fleet of aging satellites and faces a crisis on future missions with rising launch and development costs.

The next opportunity for a full space mission competition in the Venture-class program is expected in 2015.[/size]

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https://twitter.com/TechEdSat

TechEdSat stands for Technical and Educational Satellite. It is being built as a conjoined project between SJSU and AAC Microtec in Sweden, with NASA oversight

Mountain View, California

http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=228

TechEdSat will be deployed from the ISS. It is a 1U cubesat that will demonstrate Plug and Play power architecture and two way communication via the satellite phone/data networks Iridium and Orbcomm. It is expected to deorbit after 21 days.There will be a 437MHz beacon transmitting 1 watt to 1/4 wave monopole. Commanding is via the commercial networks and there is a 2 week watchdog timer to stop the beacon in the event of no commands being received. ** A beacon frequency of 437.465MHZ has been coordinated

http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/techedsat.htm

TechEdSat


TechEdSat [SJSU]

TechEdSat (Technical and Educational Satellite)) is a 1U CubeSat. It is being built as a conjoined project between San Jose State University (SJSU) and

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Кстати NanoRacks CubeSat-1/F-1 вообще вьетнамский:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nanoracks/6431390137/
http://nanoracks.com/resources/images/

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http://www.spacenews.com/civil/120726-san-quentin-prisoners-building-satellite-hardware-for-nasa.html

Thu, 26 July, 2012
San Quentin Inmates Building Satellite Hardware for NASA[/size]
By Debra Werner

    SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The NASA Ames Research Center is known for establishing innovative partnerships and Pete Worden, the former Air Force general who serves as the Center's director, is known as a maverick. Still, the latest joint venture to come to light has caught even some longtime NASA observers by surprise.

    Under supervision from NASA Ames, inmates working in the machine shop at California's San Quentin State Prison are building Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployers (PPODs), the standard mechanism used to mount cubesats on a variety of launch vehicles and then, at the appropriate time, fling them into orbit.

    "Only Pete Worden would do something like that," said Bob Twiggs, who was one of the inventors of the cubesat while he was a professor at Stanford University. "He is a real independent hero to me in blazing new trails rather that sticking close to the safe road," Twiggs, who now serves as a professor at Kentucky's Morehead State University, said by email.

    Worden got the idea for the partnership with San Quentin while he was at a party, talking to the spouse of a NASA employee who happened to work as a guard on the prison's death row. When the guard mentioned the prison's critical need to establish innovative education and training programs, Worden, a former University of Arizona professor, said, "How about building small satellites?"

    A couple of weeks later, NASA Ames officials visited the prison and confirmed that inmates had access to the type of machine tools they would need to build PPODs. That led to a two year, non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement that senior officials from NASA Ames and San Quentin signed in June 2011.

    As part of that agreement, NASA Ames officials developed the educational plan to train inmates to build the small satellite components. The partnership program is designed primarily to help "a few select inmates develop their machining skills to make them more employable in the aerospace industry upon release," Adriana Cardenas, NASA Ames associate director of engineering, said in an emailed response to questions. "The components will never fly in space," said Cardenas, who also serves as NASA Ames' liaison to San Quentin.

    However, PPODs manufactured in San Quentin's machine shop will be handed over to NASA Ames and "depending on the quality, we may consider the possibility that they could be used as test articles." Center officials have not yet made any plans to use the PPODs built at San Quentin for testing, she added.

    Nevertheless, Worden said the hardware produced at San Quentin has been "top notch." In addition to providing training for the inmates, Worden said he has promised to help a couple of them find employment when they are released from prison.[/size]

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http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_07_30_2012_p41-478903.xml

Cubesat Planet-Finder In The Works
By Frank Morring, Jr.
Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology



July 30, 2012

Frank Morring, Jr. Washington

A $5 million cubesat is definitely top of the line, but not when it is being developed to perform work similar to that underway on the $600 million Kepler planet-finder mission.

A group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is developing a cubesat dubbed ExoplanetSat to evaluate whether any Earthlike planets found circling bright, relatively nearby stars have orbits that would permit spectral analysis of their atmospheres.

While the cost of the first planet-finding cubesat taking shape at MIT is high, its developers hope to be able to build enough of them to bring down the unit cost. Restrictions imposed by the tiny space available inside the 3U cubesat—measuring 30 X 10 X 10 cm—limit each to observing one exoplanet, so a "swarm" of "dozens" of spacecraft watching the same number of different stars would be needed, says Sara Seager, a professor of planetary science and professor of physics at MIT who is key to the work.

"Kepler is looking at faint stars that are by definition far away," Seager says. "We're trying to look at the brightest, nearest stars. The bright stars are spread all around the sky, and that's why a Kepler wouldn't work for all the brighter stars, because Kepler only looks at one patch of the sky. We need one telescope per star."

While Kepler is a survey instrument that stares at a tiny area of sky and measures the faint flicker that occurs when an orbiting exoplanet moves in front of it, ExoplanetSat will stare at a single star to gather as much data as possible fr om a transiting planet. Given the tiny change in the amount of light reaching the spacecraft's detector, keeping the light from a target star focused will require pointing accuracy at "the several-arcsecond level" if the noise level in the system is to be low enough to permit meaningful measurements.

Packing all that capability into a spacecraft only 30-cm long will require clever use of hardware—some of it off-the-shelf, as is typical of cubesats—and some really clever software. Gross pointing is achieved with miniature reaction wheels produced for the cubesat market by Maryland Aerospace Inc. of Crofton. These serve to point the spacecraft at the target star with an accuracy of 60-100 arcseconds, Seager says.

Light from the star is collected with a space-hardened off-the-shelf single-lens-reflex camera lens, and passed on to a detector that consists of a single charge-coupled device (CCD) surrounded by an array of several complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) detectors. Behind the detector plate is a piezoelectric actuator that moves it in the x and y axes (see schematic).

"We have a piezo stage; it's like an x/y control attached to the detector, which is wh ere the focal plane of the telescope is," Seager says. "And then we move that around and that gets us from that 60 arcseconds down to several arcseconds."

The hardware is able to move the detector by microns in the two dimensions, but Seager notes that there is nothing new in the general approach of using starlight to guide a telescope.

"It's common," she says. "That's basically how all telescopes are controlled. We're building upon things that we have done before. We're just trying to do it to a more precise level with smaller equipment."

So far, the MIT team has tested the spacecraft's precision-pointing function with breadboard hardware on an air-bearing table. The camera and imaging-electronics board are also in hand, and have been tested both in the lab and outside against the night sky.

Although the work kicked off with a little astrobiology funding from NASA, the main financial support has come from Draper Laboratory, an MIT spinoff, and from MIT itself.

"That brought us about halfway in terms of the money spent, because we spent a lot of time on R&D," says Seager. "We're still looking for more money to finish the project now."

The MIT team has secured a launch, when the spacecraft is ready, via NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program (see p. 44), and has a notional mission design and list of target stars. ELaNa payloads can't choose their orbits, but must follow the primary payload's route to space, so in general ExoplanetSat will go to an equatorial orbit in as low an inclination as possible, with an altitude that avoids the radiation belts to extend the lifetime of the detectors and other electronics.

"The field of exoplanets moves so quickly that by the time we launch, the list of targets will be different," Seager says.

Those targets will be bright stars identified from the ground as having planetary systems. ExoplanetSat will determine if its target system includes a planet that transits the star, which could allow researchers to determine its size and fitness for study with larger and more expensive spacecraft.

"We ultimately want to do direct imaging from space, but that won't be done with cubesats unless you get them to self-assemble into something much bigger," says Seager.

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August - ORS 3: STPSat 3, ORSES, ORS Tech 1, ORS Tech 2, Prometheus 1, Prometheus 2, Prometheus 3, Prometheus 4, SENSE 1, SENSE 2, Firefly, STARE B (Horus), NPS-SCAT, CSIP, Rampart, CAPE 2, KYSat 2, Lunar Orbiter&Lander CubeSat, SwampSat, Black Night 1, SPA-1 Trailblazer, TetherSat, DragonSat 1, Copper-Cube, PhoneSat 2.0 - Minotaur I - MARS LP-0B

Кубосат с гарантированным САС 5 лет.

http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/rampart.htm

Students at Morehead State University are building the RAMPART (Rapidprototyped Mems Propulsion And Radiation Test) amateur radio CubeSat with a propulsion system that will raise the apogee of its orbit from 500 km to 1200 km.

RAMPART will be launched as a piggy-back payload on a Minotaur-1 from Vandenburg in June 2013.

It is a 2U CubeSat and will use a self-contained, warm gas, propulsion system to adjust satellite's initial circular orbit of 500 km to an eliptical orbit with an apogee of 1200 m and perigee of 500 km at a 45° inclination.

The other objectives of the mission are:

 * demonstrate use of 3D printing (a.k.a. rapid prototyping) for manufacturing small satellites.
 * measure flux of energetic particles in lower Van Allen Belt.
 * test radiation-hardened electronic components and high performance solar cells in high radiation environment over a period of five years.



Nation:    USA
Type / Application:    Experimental
Operator:    Morehead State University
Contractors:    Morehead State University
Equipment:    
Configuration:    CubeSat (2U)
Propulsion:    ?
Power:    Deployable solar arrays, batteries
Lifetime:    5 years
Mass:    3 kg
Orbit:    

Еще один кубосат с гарантированным САС 5 лет ( точнее 2 кубосата, соед. друг с другом тросом длиной 1 километр ).

http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/tethersat.htm

Tethersat is a 3U CubeSat that splits into two joined 1.5U CubeSats by a 1 km tether to test electrodynamic tether propulsion.

It is a mission of the Naval Postgraduate School and is launched via the Space Test Program (STP) and NASA's ELaNa initiative.



Nation:    USA
Type / Application:    Experimental
Operator:    STP / Naval Postgraduate School
Contractors:    Naval Postgraduate School
Equipment:    
Configuration:    2 × CubeSat (1.5U)
Propulsion:    ?
Power:    Deployable solar arrays, batteries
Lifetime:    5 years
Mass:    3 kg
Orbit:

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http://www.parabolicarc.com/2010/08/12/nasa-announces-cubesat-opportunity/cubesat/

NASA Announces Fourth Round of CubeSat Space Mission Candidates
Posted by Doug Messier
on February 28, 2013, at 4:32 pm



WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has sel ected 24 small satellites to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, a Florida high school, several non-profit organizations and NASA field centers.

CubeSats belong to a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites measure about 4 inches on each side, have a volume of about 1 quart, and weigh less than 3 pounds.

The selections are fr om the fourth round of the CubeSat Launch Initiative. After launch, the satellites will conduct technology demonstrations, educational research or science missions. The selected CubeSats will be eligible for flight after final negotiations and an opportunity for flight becomes available.

The following organizations submitted winning satellite proposals:

 The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
 The Discovery Museum and Planetarium, Bridgeport, Conn.
 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Ariz.
 Morehead State University, Morehead, Ky., in partnership with the University of California at Berkeley
 Montana State University, Bozeman (2 CubeSats) in partnership with The University of New Hampshire, Durham
 Merritt Island High School, Florida, in partnership with California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
 NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. (3 CubeSats)
 NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., in partnership with the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (3 CubeSats)
 NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida
 Pennsylvania State University, in partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, Calif., and the Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
 Saint Louis University, St. Louis
 Tyvak Nano-Satellites Systems, Irvine, Calif., in partnership with the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
 University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
 University of Colorado, Boulder
 University of Florida, Gainesville, in partnership with Stanford University
 University of Maryland, Baltimore County
 University of Texas, Austin
 Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., in partnership with the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, Silver Spring, Md.

In the three previous rounds of the CubeSat initiative, NASA has selected 63 missions for flight. The agency's Launch Services Program Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa) Program has launched 12 CubeSat missions. This year, 22 CubeSat missions are scheduled for flight.

For additional information on NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative program, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/nXOuPI

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http://www.nro.gov/about/innovation/index.html

National Reconnaissance Office 2013 Innovation Campaign
   

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NASA Announces New CubeSat Space Mission Candidates



Artist's concept of the Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE) CubeSat project. The dual INSPIRE CubeSats, the world's first CubeSats to launched beyond Earth orbit, will demonstrate functionality, communication, navigation and payload hosting in interplanetary space. INSPIRE is a NASA JPL partnership with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; and the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with Goldstone-Apple Valley Radio Telescope. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA has sel ected 24 small satellites, including three from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, a Florida high school, several non-profit organizations and NASA field centers.
CubeSats belong to a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites measure about 4 inches (10 centimeters) on each side, have a volume of about 1 quart (1 liter), and weigh less than 3 pounds (1.1 kilograms).
The selections are from the fourth round of the CubeSat Launch Initiative. After launch, the satellites will conduct technology demonstrations, educational research or science missions. The sel ected CubeSats will be eligible for flight after final negotiations and an opportunity for flight becomes available.
The following organizations submitted winning satellite proposals:
-- The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
 -- The Discovery Museum and Planetarium, Bridgeport, Conn.
 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Ariz.
 -- Morehead State University, Morehead, Ky., in partnership with the University of California at Berkeley
 -- Montana State University, Bozeman (two CubeSats) in partnership with The University of New Hampshire, Durham
 -- Merritt Island High School, Fla., in partnership with California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
 -- NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
 -- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. (three CubeSats)
 -- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. (three CubeSats)
 -- NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
 -- Pennsylvania State University, in partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, Calif.; and The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
 -- Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Mo.
 -- Tyvak Nano-Satellites Systems, Irvine, Calif., in partnership with the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
 -- University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
 -- University of Colorado, Boulder
 -- University of Florida, Gainesville, in partnership with Stanford University
 -- University of Maryland, Baltimore County
 -- University of Texas, Austin
 -- Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., in partnership with the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, Silver Spring, Md.
The three CubeSats fr om JPL, which is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, are:
--The Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (ISARA), a technology demonstration of a practical, low-cost Ka-band high-gain antenna on a 3U CubeSat that will increase downlink data rates fr om a baseline of 9.6 kilobits per second to more than 100 megabits per second with minimal impact on spacecraft mass, volume, cost and power requirements.
--The CubeSat VHF transmitter to study Ionospheric dispersion of Radio Pulses (CHIRP), a 6U CubeSat designed to provide measurements of very high frequency (VHF) radio pulses propagated through the ionosphere that will be essential to the development of SWORD, a future explorer class charged-particle astronomical observatory.
--The Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE) project, which will open deep-space heliophysics and planetary science to the CubeSat community by demonstrating functionality, communication, navigation and payload-hosting in interplanetary space on dual 3U CubeSats.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=42684

Крохотные спутники CubeSats отправятся за пределы околоземной орбиты

Два спутника CubeSats, изготовленные Лабораторией реактивного движения НАСА и тремя университетами-партнёрами, вскоре собираются отправиться туда, где ещё не бывал ни один из спутников CubeSats — за пределы околоземной орбиты.

Два спутника космического агентства под названием Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE), каждый размером не больше, чем булка хлеба, станут первыми спутниками CubeSats, вышедшими за пределы околоземной орбиты в межпланетное космическое пространство.

Для первого запуска спутники не будут оснащаться научными инструментами или эффективными двигательными системами: их задача состоит в том, чтобы определить, способны ли крохотные аппараты выдержать суровые условия космической среды.

Если «межпланетные» испытания пройдут удачно, то сеть спутников CubeSats может однажды охватить всю Солнечную систему, предоставляя возможность для отправления недорогих миссий к кометам астероидам, планетам и их спутникам.

Запуск проекта INSPIRE был одобрен НАСА. Его планируется провести где-то между 2014 и 2016 гг., но окончательная дата отправления пока точно не определена.

http://www.astronews.ru/cgi-bin/mng.cgi?page=news&news=3524

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http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/04/05/nasa-issues-2013-smallsat-technology-partnership-solicitation/

NASA Issues 2013 Smallsat Technology Partnership Solicitation
Posted by Doug Messier
on April 5, 2013, at 6:44 am

SMALLSAT TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS
2013 NASA COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE
Full Solicitation

Summary

Objective: To award cooperative agreements to United States colleges and universities to develop and/or demonstrate new technologies and capabilities for small spacecraft in collaboration with NASA. Projects may be technology development or development of spacecraft or payloads for suborbital, balloon or orbital space flights.

Eligibility: Limited to college and university teams (including undergraduate and/or graduate students) in partnership with NASA researchers. The Principal Investigator submitting the proposal shall be affiliated with a college or university.

Key Dates:

Release: April 2, 2013
Notice of Intent Due: May 1, 2013, 6:00 PM EDT
Proposals Due: June 5, 2013, 6:00 PM EDT
Selection: July 12, 2013 (Target)
Award: August 16, 2013 (Target)
Project Start: September 2, 2013 (Target)

Awards:

    Total anticipated budget for this notice: up to $1,500,000.
    Maximum value of any single award: up to $100,000 per year, per university or a maximum of $150,000 per year for projects with more than one university partner. A NASA civil servant labor allocation of up to 1.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) would be available to support NASA involvement in each selected project.
    Expected number of awards: up to ten, pending acceptable proposals and available funding.
    Project duration: one year, with possible continuation for second year based on satisfactory progress and available funding.

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http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_11_19_2013_p0-638529.xml&p=1

ISS Astronauts Launch U.S., Japanese CubeSats
By Mark Carreau mark.carreau@gmail.com
Source: AWIN First

November 19, 2013
Credit: NASA

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station launched three CubeSats early Nov. 19, using a deployment mechanism aboard the orbiting lab's Kibo Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) that was successfully demonstrated last year.

A fourth satellite is scheduled for release early Nov. 20.

The first wave, ejected with the Small Satellite Orbital Satellite Deployer (SSOSD) from the Kibo exposed facility at 7:17 a.m. EST, included:

• Pico Dragon, a 1U CubeSat (10 by 10 by 10 cm) developed by the University of Tokyo, the Vietnam National Satellite Center and IHI Aerospace for Earth imaging.

• ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X, developed by Nanoracks and NanoSatisfi under NASA sponsorship, for the technology validation of reprogramming deployed 1U satellites.

TechEdSat-3 is scheduled for deployment on Nov. 20 at 2:50 a.m. EST. The 3U (30 by 10 by 10 cm) satellite was developed by NASA's Ames Research Center to validate an aero-braking mechanism called Exo Brake.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata handled the first deployments after working with NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins to prepare the JEM's experiment airlock and the SSOSD for operations.

"From the monitor it looks really beautiful," Wakata advised JAXA flight controllers after the first three CubeSats sped away.

"Congratulations on a successful deployment," the Japanese ground team responded.

The release was delayed several minutes as Wakata and the controllers resolved an issue with a command panel display.

The CubeSats were delivered to the ISS aboard JAXA's HTV-4 resupply mission that docked to the station's U.S. segment on Aug. 9.

Using procedures validated in October 2012, the station astronauts opened the inner hatch of the small experiment airlock in the Kibo module to gain access to a slide table. The CubeSats, pre-packed in two Satellite Install Cases, were placed in the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform on the slide table. The platform and the SSOSD were moved through the airlock to the JEM exposed facility, a 20- by 16.7- by 13.3-ft. (6 by 5 by 4-meter) external platform with power and data links for science payloads and engineering evaluations.

The spring-loaded deployer was grappled by Japan's 32-ft.-long robot arm and extended a safe distance for the initial release.

In the Oct. 4-5, 2012, demonstration, the JEM launch apparatus deployed five U.S. and Japanese CubeSats.

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December 10, 2013

Johns Hopkins APL Will Launch RAVAN to Help Solve an Earth Science Mystery

Newest Project in Applied Physics Laboratory's Cubesat Initiative



A new, low-cost cubesat mission led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., will demonstrate technology needed to measure the absolute imbalance in the Earth's radiation budget for the first time, giving scientists valuable information to study our climate.

The Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes (RAVAN) satellite, scheduled for launch in 2015, will demonstrate how accurate and wide-ranging measurements of Earth's outgoing radiation can be made with a remarkably small instrument. The RAVAN team includes partners at Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Ma.; L-1 Standards and Technology in New Windsor, Md.; and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"Under stable climate conditions, the energy from the sun reaching the top of Earth's atmosphere and that being reflected or radiated to space are equal," explains Bill Swartz, an atmospheric scientist at APL and RAVAN principal investigator. "There is substantial evidence that they are not equal, and that difference is known as Earth's radiation imbalance (ERI). It's a really small number — a difference thought to be less than one percent — but that imbalance drives the future of climate change. RAVAN will demonstrate how ERI can be unambiguously and affordably quantified from space, enabling a huge leap in our ability to predict the future climate."

RAVAN will use a small, accurate radiometer, developed at L-1 Standards and Technology and not much larger than a deck of cards, to measure the strength of the Earth's outgoing radiation across the entire spectrum of energy — from the ultraviolet to the far infrared. "ERI is too small to be measured by previous, current or planned future space assets," says co-investigator Warren Wiscombe, a climate scientist at Goddard.

The secret to RAVAN's precise measurements is a "forest" of carbon nanotubes, grown at APL, that serve as the radiometer's light absorber. "The carbon nanotubes are a very deep black across the energy spectrum, which will let the radiometer gather virtually all the light reflected and emitted from the planet," says Swartz.

RAVAN represents the first step toward a constellation of cubesats, each no larger than a loaf of bread, that would provide global coverage of Earth's total outgoing radiation throughout the day and night, and data to answer long-standing questions about the Earth's climate future.

"RAVAN is unique because it's not only a technology demonstration but a manufacturing and economic demonstration," says Draper Laboratory's Lars Dyrud, RAVAN project lead. "Resolving climate uncertainty and improved prediction of future climate change requires 30 to 40 RAVAN sensors. The cubesat revolution and advanced manufacturing offer the best hope for affordably achieving these urgent goals." Draper Laboratory is responsible for process engineering for RAVAN, with the goal of ensuring that the instrument design can be manufactured in a cost-effective manner.

RAVAN is the first Earth science cubesat built by APL. It is part of the Lab's ongoing development and refinement of these small, adaptable and cost-effective platforms for operational use. APL's first two cubesats carried technology demonstration payloads, and launched Nov. 19, 2013, aboard a Minotaur rocket from Wallops Island. The RAVAN mission is sponsored by NASA's Earth Science Technology Office, located at Goddard.

http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2013/131210.asp

[Salo]

https://asunow.asu.edu/20160406-creativity-asu-suncube-femtosat-space-exploration-for-everyone

     
Creativity
 The next big thing in space is really, really small
 Tempe campus School of Earth and Space Exploration College of Liberal Arts and Sciences  
   
 ASU team worked for two years to shrink the costs of space exploration.  
   
 Swarms of femtosats could examine a damaged spacecraft from many angles.  
   
 "Space for everybody. That's how you invigorate a field," ASU scientist says.  
 
 April 6, 2016 ASU's SunCube FemtoSat will open space exploration to everyone, with launch costs as low as $3,000 for low-Earth orbit
Going into space is now within your grasp.
A tiny spacecraft being developed at Arizona State University is breaking the barrier of launch cost, making the price of conducting a space mission radically cheaper.
 
"With a spacecraft this size, any university can do it, any lab can do it, any hobbyist can do it," said Jekan Thanga, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Space ExplorationThe School of Earth and Space Exploration is an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. and head of the Space and Terrestrial Robotic Exploration (SpaceTREx) Laboratory.
 
Thanga and a team of graduate and undergraduate students — including Mercedes Herreras-Martinez, Andrew Warren and Aman Chandra — have spent the past two years developing the SunCube FemtoSatFemtosatellite or "femtosat" is usually applied to artificial satellites with a wet massWet mass in this context means the weight of the spacecraft and any fuel it will use to propel itself around while in space.  between 10 and 100 g (0.35 and 3.53 ounces).. It's tiny — 3 cm by 3 cm by 3 cm. Thanga envisions a "constellation of spacecraft" — many eyes in many places. A swarm of them could inspect damaged spacecraft from many angles, for example.
 
Thanga and the School of Earth and Space Exploration will host a free kickoff event Thursday night introducing the SunCube, followed by a panel discussion with scientists and space-industry professionals on the logistics, opportunities and implications of this breakthrough technology. (Find event details here.)

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Salo пишет:

А где тема про сферические в вакууме кубосатики, например американские?    

 JPL and Caltech CubeSat Proposals Move Forward
February 14, 2012

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA has sel ected 33 small satellites - including two Cubesats from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in partnership with the California Institute of Technology, both in Pasadena - to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2013 and 2014. The proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, NASA field centers and Department of Defense organizations.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches (10.2 centimeters) long, have a volume of about one quart (nearly a liter) and weigh less than three pounds (1.35 kilograms).

The selections are from the third round of the CubeSat Launch Initiative. After launch, the satellites will conduct technology demonstrations, educational research or science missions. The sel ected spacecraft are eligible for flight after final negotiations and an opportunity for flight becomes available. The satellites come fr om the following organizations:

-- Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
-- Air Force Research Lab, Wright-Patterson AFB
-- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
-- Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
-- Montana State University, Bozeman
-- Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. (2 CubeSats)
-- NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
-- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
-- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in partnership with the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (2 CubeSats)
-- NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla.
-- The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, Silver Spring, Md.
-- Saint Louis University, St. Louis
-- Salish Kootenai College, Pablo, Mont.
-- Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, Ala. (2 CubeSats)
-- Taylor University, Upland, Ind.
-- University of Alabama, Huntsville
-- University of California, Berkeley
-- University of Colorado, Boulder (2 CubeSats)
-- University of Hawaii, Manoa (3 CubeSats)
-- University of Illinois, Urbana (2 CubeSats)
-- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
-- University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D.
-- University of Texas, Austin
-- U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.
-- Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg

Of the 32 CubeSat missions that were selected for launch in the previous two rounds of the CubeSat Launch Initiative, two were fr om JPL. Eight CubeSat missions have been launched (including the University of Michigan and JPL-developed M-Cubed/COVE Cubesat) to date via the agency's Launch Services Program Educational Launch of Nanosatellite, or ELaNa, program. Caltech manages JPL for NASA

For additional information on NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative program, visit: http://go.usa.gov/Qbf .

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-042

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instml пишет:
NASA Announces New CubeSat Space Mission Candidates

 

 Artist's concept of the Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE) CubeSat project. The dual INSPIRE CubeSats, the world's first CubeSats to launched beyond Earth orbit, will demonstrate functionality, communication, navigation and payload hosting in interplanetary space. INSPIRE is a NASA JPL partnership with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; and the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with Goldstone-Apple Valley Radio Telescope. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
 
PASADENA, Calif. - NASA has sel ected 24 small satellites, including three from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, a Florida high school, several non-profit organizations and NASA field centers.
CubeSats belong to a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites measure about 4 inches (10 centimeters) on each side, have a volume of about 1 quart (1 liter), and weigh less than 3 pounds (1.1 kilograms).
The selections are from the fourth round of the CubeSat Launch Initiative. After launch, the satellites will conduct technology demonstrations, educational research or science missions. The sel ected CubeSats will be eligible for flight after final negotiations and an opportunity for flight becomes available.
The following organizations submitted winning satellite proposals:
-- The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
 -- The Discovery Museum and Planetarium, Bridgeport, Conn.
 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Ariz.
 -- Morehead State University, Morehead, Ky., in partnership with the University of California at Berkeley
 -- Montana State University, Bozeman (two CubeSats) in partnership with The University of New Hampshire, Durham
 -- Merritt Island High School, Fla., in partnership with California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
 -- NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
 -- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. (three CubeSats)
 -- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. (three CubeSats)
 -- NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
 -- Pennsylvania State University, in partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, Calif.; and The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
 -- Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Mo.
 -- Tyvak Nano-Satellites Systems, Irvine, Calif., in partnership with the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
 -- University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
 -- University of Colorado, Boulder
 -- University of Florida, Gainesville, in partnership with Stanford University
 -- University of Maryland, Baltimore County
 -- University of Texas, Austin
 -- Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., in partnership with the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, Silver Spring, Md.
The three CubeSats fr om JPL, which is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, are:
--The Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (ISARA), a technology demonstration of a practical, low-cost Ka-band high-gain antenna on a 3U CubeSat that will increase downlink data rates fr om a baseline of 9.6 kilobits per second to more than 100 megabits per second with minimal impact on spacecraft mass, volume, cost and power requirements.
--The CubeSat VHF transmitter to study Ionospheric dispersion of Radio Pulses (CHIRP), a 6U CubeSat designed to provide measurements of very high frequency (VHF) radio pulses propagated through the ionosphere that will be essential to the development of SWORD, a future explorer class charged-particle astronomical observatory.
--The Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE) project, which will open deep-space heliophysics and planetary science to the CubeSat community by demonstrating functionality, communication, navigation and payload-hosting in interplanetary space on dual 3U CubeSats.

 http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=42684

 Крохотные спутники CubeSats отправятся за пределы околоземной орбиты

Два спутника CubeSats, изготовленные Лабораторией реактивного движения НАСА и тремя университетами-партнёрами, вскоре собираются отправиться туда, где ещё не бывал ни один из спутников CubeSats — за пределы околоземной орбиты.

Два спутника космического агентства под названием Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE), каждый размером не больше, чем булка хлеба, станут первыми спутниками CubeSats, вышедшими за пределы околоземной орбиты в межпланетное космическое пространство.

Для первого запуска спутники не будут оснащаться научными инструментами или эффективными двигательными системами: их задача состоит в том, чтобы определить, способны ли крохотные аппараты выдержать суровые условия космической среды.

Если «межпланетные» испытания пройдут удачно, то сеть спутников CubeSats может однажды охватить всю Солнечную систему, предоставляя возможность для отправления недорогих миссий к кометам астероидам, планетам и их спутникам.

Запуск проекта INSPIRE был одобрен НАСА. Его планируется провести где-то между 2014 и 2016 гг., но окончательная дата отправления пока точно не определена.

 http://www.astronews.ru/cgi-bin/mng.cgi?page=news&news=3524

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/18/door-now-open-to-launch-educational-hitchhikers-on-atlas-5-rockets-for-free/

Door now open to launch educational hitchhikers on Atlas 5 rockets for free             
 April 18, 2016 Justin Ray


CAPE CANAVERAL — United Launch Alliance has begun accepting applications from colleges and universities across the U.S. to compete for free cubesat launch slots aboard upcoming Atlas 5 rockets.
The educational opportunity will use excess performance aboard rockets launching to space to carry the tiny student-made craft made of science and technology experiments.
"Universities pioneered cubesat development, and there is a growing need for launch access and availability," said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO.
"Our goal is to eventually add university cubesat slots to nearly every Atlas and Vulcan Centaur launch – with potential for 100 rides per year."
Cubesats are baselined at 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm (4 inches x 4 inches x 4 inches) and approximately 1.3 kg (3 lbs). The craft are housed in a box-like Aft Bulkhead Carrier on the Centaur upper stage, next to the RL10C-1 engine, and ejected from the dispenser into orbit.
ULA has successfully launched 55 cubesats through the company's 106 flights to date. Those opportunities were via National Reconnaissance Office, Air Force and NASA initiatives.
Now, ULA is giving the miniature hitchhiker payloads free rides on Atlas 5 boosters and the future Vulcan rocket now in development to debut in 2019. The company is the first launch provider to make free cubesat flight opportunities available on its own.
"ULA's cubesat program revolutionizes access to space for these payloads while ensuring that the next generation of rocket scientists and space entrepreneurs has the opportunity to continue driving on-orbit innovation," Bruno said.
 Atlas 5 launch. Photo: ULA
The competitive program is available to all U.S. accredited colleges and universities. They are encouraged to partner with K-12 schools to further expand science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.
The deadline to apply is June 1. The winning cubesats will be announced later this summer.
The selection committee will look at a proposal's mission objectives in science and STEM, outreach plans for their local community, technical requirements and the likelihood of meeting the development schedule. Safety to the flight's primary payload and ensuring the cubesat will not threaten or do any harm to the mission will be judged, too.
Each application will face the following criteria:
* Technical Requirements — 25%
 * Mission Objective — 25%
 * Outreach Component — 25%
 * Proposal Credibility — 15%
 * Quality of Proposal — 10%
Six cubesat launch slots are available in this first round of the program, each payload sized at "1U" in cubesat-speak, for two Atlas 5 missions. The first launch will likely be a geosychronous transfer orbit mission targeted for mid-2017. The second flight, also to GTO, is planned for mid-2018.
To apply, visit: http://www.ulalaunch.com/cubesats.aspx

[поц]

NanoRacks‏Подлинная учетная запись @NanoRacks 28 мар.


Big congrats to the @BrownUniversity and @BrownCubeSat students for completing handover of #EQUiSat. We can't wait to launch your #CubeSat to the @Space_Station on @OrbitalATK's #OA9 mission. Your enthusiasm is contagious!
 
EQUiSat

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NanoRacks выбрана поставщиком пусковых услуг в интересах реализации канадского проекта создания кубсатов

Североамериканская NanoRacks объявила о том, что она предоставит пусковые услуги для канадского проекта создания кубсатов. Данное мероприятие будет финансироваться космическим агентством Канады (CSA). Всего в рамках проекта планируется запустить 15 аппаратов. В дополнение к оказанию услуг по выведению NanoRacks и космическое агентство Канады окажут создателям аппаратов техническую поддержку. Последняя услуга является особенно важной поскольку в рамках проекта CSA будет привлекать к разработке команды, которые ранее не имели большого опыта в спутникостроении (планируется привлечь для реализации проекта 532 студента). Стоимость проекта составит 8 млн. долл. или 0.5 процента от бюджета космического агентства Канады.

NanoRacks to Launch 15 Cubesats for Nationwide Canadian Project

NanoRacks and CSA are targeting two separate launch opportunities for these Cubesats in 2020 and 2021.