 Pre-launch
announcement
Illinois Observing Nanosatellite (ION)
LAUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT:
Almost exactly five years after setting its sights on space, the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will launch its first student-developed
satellite on June 28, 2006.
Over these past years, over 125 students across seven engineering disciplines
have contributed to the project.
In addition to the primary educational mission that CubeSat programs
perform, the University of Illinois has strived to also demonstrate the
utility of these tiny satellites by following through on real missions
including a science mission.
The ION team hopes that the resulting product will help expand the perceptions
of what these tiny satellites can do someday leading to future space sensor
webs. As discussed below, the team is fully prepared for launch and looking
forward to hearing the little guy phone home. See below for additional
information about the satellite.
BEACON INFORMATION:
We are looking for Ham Radio operators who can listen for our satellite's
beacon, which will be broadcast at 437.505 MHz immediately after launch.
The beacon is sent in plain text over AX.25 every 5 minutes, and anyone
listening with a TNC in connectionless mode should be able to pick it
up. Please e-mail cubesat-l-subscribe-request@listserv.uiuc.edu
to subscribe to our mailing list and receive announcements including launch
information.
Send beacon reports to cubesat@ece.uiuc.edu with your name/location,
any data that you receive, time of contact, and signal strength.
* Frequency: 437.505 MHz, AFSK
* Speed: 1200bps
* Format: Plain text over AX.25
* When: Every 5 minutes
* Include: name, location, data, time, signal strength
LAUNCH PREPARATIONS
Here is a "lessons learned" story that is sure to be passed
from CubeSat generation to CubeSat generation.
Mike, Leon, and I recently visited ION in California for some final preparations
including adjusting schedules and recharging the main batteries. When
we arrived, the satellite was completely silent. To make a very long story
short, we held a midnight meeting at Denny's with a few snippets of external
information and somehow diagnosed the most likely cause as a dead clock
battery. In order to replace the clock battery without disassembling the
satellite, we operated on it using surgical tools and a borrowed dentist's
mirror.
 The
dentist's office we visited graciously agreed to loan us a mirror, but
they said that we could have come up with a better story. When the dentist
finally came out, he quizzically opened with, "You guys are doing
what?" For some reason, they didn't believe us when we told them
that we were students launching a satellite out of Russia using a converted
nuclear missile... as if we could make up a tale that tall!!
We are happy to report that after an intense three days in the emergency
room, ION made a full recovery and is now on its way to Russia with plans
to circle the globe... every 95 minutes.
Although difficult, the launch delays this past year have had some nice
side benefits. We were able to review ION's design while designing ION's
successor (temporarily named ION-2). More importantly, the delays have
given us time to upgrade our ground station including the installation
of a new antenna tower.
We are currently practicing communications with existing satellites using
this tower and plan to maintain the old antenna tower as a backup until
the new setup has proven reliable. Finally, the delays have given us a
chance to take a breather after an intense couple of years of development.
We are now recharged and preparing for launch much more thoroughly than
we might have a year ago. In addition to ground station upgrades, we are
in the process of developing tools for managing / graphing / analyzing
/ processing satellite data and posting it to the Web. We are also carefully
defining a number of experiments and would welcome any input that you
may have. A list of these can be found below. As a whole, we plan to be
very well organized with our information and procedures.
Our organization will consist of two teams this summer. The Ground Team
handles day-to-day file exchanges, organization of information, preliminary
data analysis, and command recommendations. The information is then distributed
over the Web to the Command Team, which consists of ION veterans now scattered
across the nation. The Command Team performs a detailed data analysis,
makes the final command decisions in a conference call, and prepares/double
checks config files for upload to the satellite. All-in-all launch preparations
have been progressing very nicely, and we should be fully prepared for
the launch on June 28.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT ION
Also, visit http://cubesat.ece.uiuc.edu
HISTORY OF ION
ION is the first project of the Illinois Tiny Satellite Initiative (ITSI),
which is organized through an interdisciplinary senior design course.
The course objectives include training students to identify, formulate,
and solve engineering problems as part of a large multi-team project.
Over the past five years, over 125 students across seven engineering
disciplines have contributed to the project. Most students participate
in their senior year with some starting earlier or participating as graduate
students. One to two graduate Teaching Assistants provide day-to-day program
management and continuity across semesters as the students in the course
continually change. In addition, three faculty advisors provide mentorship
and numerous other faculty provide technical support as required. Typically,
five to six teams of three to five people each participate in the project.
Other ITSI projects include the primary payload for the Thunderstorm
Effects in Space Technology Nanosatellite (TEST) and a successor to ION
(temporarily named ION-2) that began one year ago.
ION MISSIONS
In addition to the primary educational mission that CubeSat programs
perform, the University of Illinois has strived to also demonstrate the
utility of these tiny satellites by following through on real missions
including a science mission. The ION team hopes that the resulting product
will help expand the perceptions of what these tiny satellites can do,
possibly even extending to future space sensor webs.
The first of ION's five science and technology missions involves measuring
Oxygen airglow emissions from the Earthís Mesosphere. This helps
scientists understand how energy transfers across large regions contributing
to our knowledge of atmospheric dynamics.
Second, ION tests a new MicroVacuum Arc Thruster (µVAT) with high
dynamic range advancing a key enabling technology for small satellites.
This serves as a stepping-stone towards a versatile low mass satellite
propulsion system capable of lateral movement and finely controlling attitude.
Such a capability might someday allow greater interaction with other spacecraft.
Third, ION tests a new SID processor board designed specifically for
small satellites in Low Earth Orbits (LEO). By utilizing a Commercial
Off the Shelf (COTS) processor that is radiation hardened through system
design techniques, it allows small satellites to take advantage of the
latest in small, low power, high performance processor technology with
increased reliability. Fourth, ION tests a small CMOS camera for Earth
imaging on this and future spacecraft.
Finally, ION performs ground based attitude stabilization demonstrating
an important capability for the future growth of CubeSats. ION ís
design also includes solar cell power point tracking, dual redundant batteries,
a custom communications protocol, a custom file system, automatic telemetry
publication to the Web, and future support for distributed ground stations.
SCIENCE MISSION DETAILS
IONs primary mission consists of measuring molecular Oxygen airglow emissions
from the Earths mesosphere using a 760nm photometer. Oxygen chemistry
at this 90km altitude emits a dim glow of light, and ION ís photometer
should show perturbations in this airglow caused by various effects such
as the presence of mountains. These perturbations ripple through the atmosphere
in 15km to >2500km waves carried by wind. By studying these waves,
scientists learn how energy transfers across large spatial regions contributing
to knowledge of upper atmospheric dynamics.
This airglow emission is absorbed by the Earthís lower atmosphere
preventing study with Earth-based sensors, and satellite detection has
the added benefit of global coverage. In addition, IONs orbit gives it
a unique opportunity to gather this data around the Polar Regions and
at higher latitudes.
ION EXPERIMENTS
* Establish Contact with UI's First Student Satellite
* Survive the First Two Weeks
* Test / Characterize All Systems
* Determine Satellite Attitude
* Stabilize Satellite
* Measure Oxygen Airglow
* Photograph Earth
* Test SID Processor
* Test Thrusters
* Test Polyethylene Shielding
* Connect with Distributed Ground Station Network
* Deorbit Satellite
CUBESATS
So far, some 100 organizations have registered intentions to develop
CubeSats, and about a dozen have launched. Success rates have been surprisingly
high considering that these satellites are developed by inexperienced
students often as the first spacecraft from their institutions. The CubeSat
Spec, developed by Stanford and Cal-Poly Universities, standardizes the
mechanical interface between CubeSats and their PPOD launchers. This allows
developers to efficiently combine multiple CubeSats and include them as
secondary payloads with ongoing launches.
CubeSats typically have a mass of one kilogram with dimensions of 10x10x10cm,
and they can be combined into double or triple CubeSats to create a larger
satellite. Three CubeSats fit into launchers called PPODs developed by
Cal-Poly University. They then mount multiple PPODs onto a launch vehicle
as secondary payloads.
The CubeSat spec specifically minimizes risk to the rest of the launch
vehicle and payloads. For example, switches at the bottom of each satelliteís
feet turn off all electronics while the satellite waits for deployment
in the PPOD, and the PPOD completely encloses the CubeSats. The satellites
also go through vibration, thermal-vacuum, and bake out procedures prior
to launch.
CONTACT INFORMATION
* Subscribe to ION email list (few emails/year):
cubesat-l-subscribe-request@listserv.uiuc.edu
* Send beacon reports to:
cubesat@ece.uiuc.edu
* Public Relations / Program Manager:
Purvesh Thakker (pthakker@uiuc.edu)
* ION Web Site / News:
http://cubesat.ece.uiuc.edu
* TLEs (ION is in PPOD A):
http://littonlab.atl.calpoly.edu/pages/missions/dnepr-launch-1/initial-tles.php
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