ITUpSAT1 Project

ITUpSAT1 is the first university satellite of Turkey. It is a pico-satellite which is designed and manufactured in CubeSat project as a collaboration of Stanford and California Polytechnic Universities of USA.

The pico sized satellite, which will be launched to space in January of 2009, will have an orbit at approximately 700 km.

The primary goal of ITUpSAT1 is to raise experienced staff on satellite systems in our country, and also to serve as a practical ground for the theoretically equipped graduate and undergraduate students of ITU Astronautics Department.

As mission payloads, ITUpSAT1 will carry a low resolution camera for taking pictures, and meanwhile some other different sensors. The information that sensors will provide, such as accelerometer and magnetometer, make us understand the attitude of passive stabilization system of the satellite.

The ground station in our faculty will be able to communicate with The Low Earth Orbit satellite, which has an orbit at approximately 700 km, for 4 – 5 times in a day. Aluminum framed and 1kg weighted satellite will provide its energy that it will waste during its travel along the orbit, from the sophisticated solar cells on it.

The last improvement of Flight model and the space qualification tests are continuing while the engineering model of the satellite has been completed.

Additional information:
http://usl.itu.edu.tr/index.html