Learning by doing:
ISU students build satellite

This balloon flight, done in cooperation with HABET, ISU's High Altitude Balloon Experiments in Technology program, which is part of the ISGC, was flown to test the solar cells that will be used on CySat at near space altitude.

Shaped like a Rubik's cube but slightly larger, and weighing in at only 2.2 pounds (a kilogram), picosatellites offer learning possibilities far beyond their diminutive size. These very small satellites are providing a means for students to learn about and build satellites, an area that has typically been the province of national governments and space exploration programs.

CySat, supported by a grant from the Iowa Space Grant Consortium and by ISU's Spacecraft Systems & Operations Laboratory, is Iowa State University's program to build a picosatellite. CySat is modeled after the CubeSat program developed by California Polytechnic State University: San Luis Obispo and Stanford University's Space Systems Development Laboratory.

The purpose of CubeSat is to provide the necessary knowledge of space operations through the design, construction, testing, and launch processes of picosatellites. Iowa State is among more than 40 universities that are currently working on a CubeSat.

A group of 28 students, led by Colt Wallace, a junior in aerospace engineering, are working on CySat. The students, all undergraduates, are divided into four teams: Structures, Power and Configuration; Ground Systems, Orbit and Tracking; Communications, Command and Data Handling; and Payload, Attitude Control and Determination. Some of them are receiving credit for an aerospace engineering course, and others are participating for the experience. Some graduate students will be involved in the program next semester.

CySat's mission will be taking pictures of Earth. Wallace estimates that this first picosatellite will take about two years to complete but that subsequent ones will take less time.

The CySat project will need to raise about $35,000 to cover the costs of launching the satellite; one possible source is NASA. The goal is that eventually the project will be self-supporting, which may involve making companies in the private sector aware of the services that CySat can provide.

Faculty advisers of the project are Frank Chavez, professor of aerospace engineering, William Byrd, ISGC director, Mike Cook, chief design engineer at ISU's Spacecraft Systems & Operations Laboratory, John Basart, Iowa State's ISGC coordinator, and T.J. Daniel, professor of aerospace engineering. For detailed information about the project, visit CySat's Web site at http://cosmos.ssol.iastate.edu/cysat/home.html.

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Ready for launch: Colt Wallace (l) and HABET team members Wade Johnson (c) and Kurt Buhr (r) complete launch preparation.

Each of the four CySat teams is doing research and working on the different aspects of launching the satellite. The Structures, Power and Configuration team is working on three systems: power distribution and control, thermal control, and the physical structure of the satellite. The physical structure, though not yet specified, will involve a frame or system of rails covered with an aluminum or carbon fiber skin. The team is looking for coatings and heat capacitors that will hold the heat inside the cube and will work against heat escape in the cold temperatures of space. The outer surface of the satellite will be covered with solar cells that will be the source of power to charge the batteries running it.

Using software called Satellite Tool Kit, the Ground Systems, Orbit and Tracking team assumed an orbit of 500km at an inclination of about 42 degrees, and with this, estimated access time for downlinking and uplinking information, sunlight periods, space temperature and satellite lifetime. The team is also researching how to organize and manage communication with the World-Wide Amateur Satellite and ham communities as well as getting their help to track CySat.

The Communications, Command and Data Handling team is designing the satellite's antenna and its deployment, as well as looking at transceivers for sending and receiving data, and modems to decode and encode the data.

The Payload, Attitude Control and Determination team is working to choose the appropriate camera to fit with all of CySat's requirements and to determine how to control the satellite. To determine the satellite's orientation in space, the team will use a magnetometer with a model of Earth's magnetic field, along with the data collected from the solar cells to ascertain the location of the sun.