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www.southgatearc.org
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NextGen CubeSat updateNextGen CubeSat Program Manager Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP, has provided an update on the project. On the AMSAT Bulletin Board he writes: Here at the State University of New York @ Binghamton we've been working along on our goals as outlined at the [AMSAT-NA] Symposium and in the latest edition of the Journal: (a) We have revised the ARISSat Power Supply Unit, Backplane and Solar Panel Charge Controller designs to use Pseudocapacitors instead of traditional batteries. Based on a worse-case, 600km orbit, we can produce a whole-orbit power budget of 7.5 watts using a 3U CubeSat design. If a spacecraft is launched into a more optimal orbit, like a sun-synchronous orbit, one of the two Pseudocapacitor banks can be removed. The design can be scaled to be used with other classes of spacecraft - 2U/1U CubeSat, Microsats, etc. The design has gone through two reviews with AMSAT Engineering. (Thanks Lou, Barry & Tony!) (b) We have a light-weight deployable solar panel design with integral magnetorquer coils for attitude control. The design contains original research and integrates CubeSat research from: * University of Delft (hinge concepts & use of Dyneema wire) * University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (flex-circuit magnetorquers & carbon-fiber substrate) * the Aerospace Corporation (thin-film attachment of solar cells) The design will produce about 12-15 watts per minute in any orientation (worse-case) for 3U, less with 2U or 1U. If a spacecraft is launched into a more optimal orbit the number of solar cells can be reduced while maintaining the power budget (c) We have analyzed the existing AMSAT spacecraft modules (from ARISSat & P3D) and determined that: * We can fit the SDX and U/V Linear Transponder systems from ARISSat into a 2U or 3U CubeSat Chassis without significant re-design * The IHU is going to be slightly redesigned to incorporate the Command Decoder board functions * We can reuse the base concepts from P3D for the Sun & Earth Sensor Systems * We can reuse a 3-axis Magnetometer design (Honeywell) * If the ARISSat boards were redesigned/repackaged they could fit within a 1U Chassis. (d) Things to do between now and Dayton [Hamvention May 14-16]: * Complete thermal analysis of a baseline 3U spacecraft * Antenna design (based on U of Delft's spring steel U/V antenna deployment system) * Complete Attitude Determination & Control (ADAC) integration (magnetorquers, sun/earth sensors & magnetometer) * Finish building engineering model This R&D, being performed by Engineering Students for their Senior Design projects (8 ME's/EE's + 26 SE's), is being sponsored by AMSAT. So I encourage everyone to contribute what you can to AMSAT to help fund spacecraft systems development and launch opportunities. If we have reliable, lower-cost, modular systems, then AMSAT can be more responsive to any launch opportunity. We'll have more info on the research we're doing in the next issue of the Journal and look for us at the AMSAT table in Dayton!
Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP
AMSAT Bulletin Board AMSAT-BB Dayton Hamvention
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