Questions tagged [cubesat]
Type of satellite in the shape of a cube 10 cm on each side. Popular with academics and amateurs with a focus on off-the-shelf components.
236
questions
2
votes
0
answers
53
views
Payload ideas for an 1U CubeSat
Our school has taken up a project on launching a CubeSat and I am part of the 45 contributing students. We are supposed to research on a suitable payload for the CubeSat.
We were thinking of some ...
- 23
1
vote
1
answer
146
views
Moon landing with ion thrusters
In Kerbal space program I built a mini cubesat (similar to NASA’s lunar flashlight probe) and managed to land on the moon only using ion thrusters. However, it was risky because it took a few tries. ...
- 3,371
8
votes
1
answer
140
views
What is the longest working cubesat?
For example VZLUSAT-1 is 5 years old and it is still working.
- 509
12
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Are the Artemis 1 secondary payloads still viable?
Artemis 1 carries ten cubesats as secondary payloads. One of the concerns prior to the last rollback, in September, was that the batteries were almost out of charge and that there was no way to ...
- 2,409
1
vote
0
answers
47
views
How to compute orbital decay of a cubesat?
I'd like to compute the orbital decay of a cubesat in LEO/VLEO due to atmospheric drag. Here is what I've done:
Based on the Satellite Orbital Decay Calculations document coming from the Australian ...
- 11
1
vote
0
answers
89
views
what is the cheapest transmitter for a cubesat?
I'm building a CubeSat and it's halfway built. I've got a launch for February 2023, and I need a transmitter. If I don't get a transmitter on this thing, the CubeSat will ride to orbit and immediately ...
- 1
9
votes
1
answer
1k
views
I'm building a CubeSat for a short 8-day mission in LEO followed by a fairly quick reentry, what range of orbits to consider?
The goal of this CubeSat mission is to demonstrate CubeSat construction, operation, and communication in Low Earth orbit for 8 days or longer.
Why the short mission time? Because the mission lacks ...
- 1
1
vote
0
answers
62
views
Guidance and control inputs in autonomous satellites
I would like to know which are the standard navigation data available on a small satellite (in LEO). In particular, I'm trying to understand which inputs I should consider for the Guidance&Control ...
- 101
0
votes
0
answers
54
views
A hybrid micropropulsion system for CubeSats
I am curious about how much potential would a hybrid (electric & chemical) micropropulsion system have for CubeSats.
The chosen propellant is water due to its non toxic nature, cheap cost and high ...
- 101
2
votes
0
answers
75
views
Solar sail for a 3U cubesat: do we have to buy one or can we design one?
We are working on a conceptual design for a 3U CubeSat with solar sail propulsion; we aren’t actually building one or buying one.
However we still need to make decisions like whether to build our own ...
- 69
1
vote
0
answers
38
views
CubeSat's ConOps implementation as a FSM with thread management [closed]
Can anyone shed light on this for me: How would you implement a Concept of Operations of a CubeSat as a Finite State Machine that manages each thread's priority?
Thank you !
3
votes
1
answer
120
views
3U CubeSat components
as a project for school, we are designing a preliminary conceptual 3U CubeSat design. The mission is to launch in orbit at 1,000 km and Maintain orbit for 1 month. After orbit is maintained for 1 ...
- 69
4
votes
1
answer
350
views
What is the average solar irradiation in low earth orbit?
I am trying to figure out how much power I can expect for a CubeSat in Low Earth Orbit. Is there some dataset or constant that describes the average rate of solar irradiation (per unit of area) in LEO?...
- 41
3
votes
1
answer
108
views
Has a cubesat ever caused a problem for another spacecraft? Examples? Close calls?
Cubesats can pose some unique challenges; they are small and so potentially a little harder to track, have larger area/mass so more subject to forces that can change their trajectories, are often less ...
- 148k
3
votes
0
answers
118
views
Are LHCP L-Band antennas for Cubesats available?
I am designing a cubesat to carry out GNSS reflectometry or GNSS-R. To collect the earth reflected signals, I need a nadir pointing array of patch antennas, with Left Hand Circular Polarisation (LHCP) ...
- 31
1
vote
0
answers
84
views
What is a good SNR value for a chipsat in LEO using bpsk?
My team and I are working on a chipsat and we are planning on launching it to LEO, we've also planned using bpsk.
However our use case is a bit different, all we need once it is in LEO is a ...
- 19
1
vote
1
answer
326
views
How does a 22 dBi X-band "patch" antenna get so much gain and how well behaved is its high-gain radiation pattern?
@NgPh's answer to How will the LICIACube cubesat transmit DART impact images back to Earth? What kind of antenna and radio will it use? quotes LICIACube on DART mission: an asteroid impact captured by ...
- 148k
3
votes
2
answers
464
views
How will the LICIACube cubesat transmit DART impact images back to Earth? What kind of antenna and radio will it use?
MarCO
The Mars Cube Ones or MarCOs were 6U cubesats that were deployed in deep space during the InSight mission to observe it during a critical, dynamic period of its mission, in this case the N ...
- 148k
4
votes
0
answers
114
views
How well does wood thermally perform in space applications?
Wondering if there are any studies about using wood as a material for insulation in spacecraft? My specific question is does anyone have any experience with it working as an insulator? I remember a ...
- 51
4
votes
1
answer
244
views
There are only a few suppliers of optical terminals: what is the reason?
I am conducting research into optical free space communication and small/nano satellites in LEO. I have found only a few companies which supply lasercom (laser communication) terminals (transmitter/...
- 249
3
votes
2
answers
352
views
Number of satellites needed for global 4-fold coverage as a function of altitude?
I want to estimate how many satellites (and how many number of planes) are needed for achieving a 4-fold global coverage on earth (global coverage with at least 4 satellites in view in each location). ...
- 63
2
votes
0
answers
43
views
Antenna for receivers
I am designing a CubeSat 6U in which I am using Software Defined Radio with SIGINT capability as my payload. The payload has 3 reception ports and 2 transmission ports and hence transceiver or ...
- 231
6
votes
4
answers
249
views
Why put SunRISE in the graveyard? Why will it "fly slightly above geosynchronous orbit"?
The blots.nasa.gov article NASA’s SunRISE Mission Studying Solar Particle Storms Moves Toward Launch says that the upcoming
SunRISE mission — short for the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment — ...
- 148k
3
votes
0
answers
65
views
What is actually happening in this full mission rehearsal of CAPSTONE's propulsion hardware?
NASA Ames's feature CAPSTONE’s CubeSat Prepares for Lunar Flight says
CAPSTONE will use a hydrazine-fueled propulsion system during most of its three- to four- month journey to the Moon. This line of ...
- 148k
3
votes
1
answer
269
views
How will NEA Scout control its attitude during deep space flight & keep its camera steady without vibrations or damage to its 85 m² solar sail?
Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy's Fly Me to the Moon and Then to a Near-Earth Asteroid describes Near Earth Asteroid Scout (NEA Scout, or just Scout) a 6U cubesat that will be deployed from Artemis ...
- 148k
2
votes
1
answer
178
views
Has Demonstrator-1 2021-006BX demonstrated a hydrogen-oxygen combustion engine fueled by electrolysis yet?
NASA's NASA CubeSat to Demonstrate Water-Fueled Moves in Space says:
A NASA CubeSat will launch into low-Earth orbit to demonstrate a new type of propulsion system. Carrying a pint of liquid water as ...
- 148k
6
votes
0
answers
98
views
Cubesat half duplex communication stack
My understanding is that in half duplex transceivers, you are only able to either transmit or receive. In Cubesats using half duplex comms, which part of their communications stack is performing the ...
- 61
3
votes
2
answers
246
views
Could a satellite use a Miniature Atomic Clock (MAC) to provide GPS services?
I've been investigating GPS satellites and I got curious about onboard atomic clocks. I found this following paper on the concept of a CubeSat GPS constellation using Chip-Scale Atomic Clocks, and ...
- 193
6
votes
1
answer
197
views
Advantages/disadvantages of wood for surface of cubesat?
Generally aluminum and kapton are the exterior surfaces of a cubesat. A Finnish/ESA cubesat, the WISA/Woodsat was launched that has plywood panels. It has protection against offgassing and very low ...
- 844
2
votes
1
answer
265
views
Cubesat surface material
In wikipedia I read that the structure of the cubesat are made of aluminum alloys of 7075, 6061, 5005, and 5052. Is this the surface layer of the satellite or it is necessary to cover it with kapton ...
- 101
9
votes
0
answers
246
views
Has there ever been a deliberate "Find A Satellite" challenge? Actually, could there be?
Companies often offer rewards for finding security issues in their products or their own IT systems, and hackathons have a long history.
I'm just wondering if there has ever been a deliberate ...
- 148k
3
votes
1
answer
115
views
Could a single CubeSat provide location services on another celestial body such as Mars? Could a constellation do it?
From my understanding, by having two satellites emit a signal simultaneously (carrying atomic clocks to achieve it), a ground device could measure the difference in times of arrival to determine its ...
- 193
4
votes
1
answer
79
views
Are there cubesat fan clubs? Does anybody besides their owners pay attention to them, look for or listen for them via radio?
I know the title sounds harsh, but I think it's a valid question. Public outreach and education/inspiration of the next generation has always been a part of spaceflight, and cubesats seemed to be one ...
- 148k
5
votes
1
answer
252
views
When ISS Launches Cubesats, which direction do they usually fire them?
I was listening to Houston We Have A Podcast and they mentioned that spare payload on ISS supply/crew runs frequently get filled with cubesats which get (more elegantly than the word suggests) tossed ...
3
votes
0
answers
208
views
How much would it cost to launch a 0.5U Satellite?
I have seen the figures for 1U, 3U and 12U Satellites such as those provided here, but I have been unable to find pricing for the launch of a single 0.5U or 0.25U satellite.
I have seen many academic ...
- 31
9
votes
4
answers
530
views
How do cubesat owners first find out their cubesat's initial trajectory? How do they point antennas at it before official TLEs start to appear?
When cubesats are first deployed it can sometimes take several days before they start appearing in official TLE distributions, and even then if many were deployed it may take a lot more work to decide ...
- 148k
1
vote
1
answer
103
views
Did the MarCo cubesats photograph each other or the Centaur stage from which they were deployed?
The screenshot below is an artists rendering of two MarCo cubesats and a Centaur upper stage moving together in space. I'm wondering if either of the MarCos photographed the other or the upper stage ...
- 148k
5
votes
1
answer
311
views
Regulations for cubesats designed to survive reentry and be retrieved?
I'm currently thinking about the potential of manufacturing certain items (ZBLAN, Semiconductors, Organs, Drugs, etc.) in LEO and I want to know whether it would be possible/legal to design a cubesat ...
-2
votes
1
answer
124
views
Is there a widespread popular misconception of how expensive it is to launch a cubesat? [closed]
Sometimes one sees discussions about hypothetical CubeSats with impressive abilities that seem to be assume that CubeSats are cheaper to launch (not merely individually, but by mass) than larger ...
- 8,502
4
votes
1
answer
290
views
What are the Basics of CubeSat Power Supplies and Systems?
I am going to go ahead and apologize for my ignorance surrounding this topic, as my background is Aerodynamics, and not Electrical Engineering. From what I understand, CubeSats typically generate ...
- 91
2
votes
2
answers
572
views
How many sun sensors are required to find a cubesat's orientation
I have read how a sun sensor can help find the orientation of a spacecraft, but I wasn’t sure how many are required, e.g. if one is needed on each face of the Cubesat. (Any additional information is ...
1
vote
1
answer
90
views
How many cubesat U's is CAPSTONE really?
Wikipedia's CAPSTONE(spacecraft); Spacecraft says:
The orbiter is a 12-unit CubeSat
but looking at the images in the new NASA video NASA 2021: Let's Go to the Moon I see artwork that shows Capstone ...
- 148k
2
votes
0
answers
59
views
Example of CubeSat Systems Architecture and Software Architecture
For a school project I'm required to research into the engineering methodology and process for a CubeSat. As such, I'm inquiring into if anyone has an example software and systems architecture for ...
- 21
8
votes
1
answer
138
views
Chance of ceramic board surviving re-entry on 3U CubeSat?
We're building a 3U CubeSat and have concerns about a ceramic PCB used in one of our experiments. Since ceramics have such a high melting temperature, we're not sure if the heat transfer during re-...
- 83
4
votes
1
answer
239
views
Docking cubesat in orbit - is it possible?
Would it be plausible to launch two or more cubsat's into orbit, and then have them dock together, allowing them to pack on more hardware and even fuel, broadening their capability? If it is possible, ...
- 772
2
votes
0
answers
45
views
Small satellite launcher to LEO dedicated launch vehicle [duplicate]
well today i was thinking, why nobody do something like the SS-520 but comercial? a small rocket entry dedicated to launch a cubesat, that probably go to have a lot of adventages and probably is realy ...
- 1,613
2
votes
3
answers
152
views
Closest distance at which cubesat (or comparable smallsat) has communicated with the Deep Space Network or any large 10+ meter dish? Cis-lunar ever?
Discussion below Will future deep space optical communications "ground stations" actually be in space, or on the ground? has got me wondering about the improbable situation where a giant ...
- 148k
5
votes
2
answers
278
views
How to get started with CubeSats
I am new both to CubeSats and to Stack Exchange.
I have recently started studying and planning on how to build a CubeSat, as cheaply as possible. I have read some blog posts and watched some videos, ...
- 193
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Land a cubesat on the moon with ion engine
Say I have a 3U cubesat with a BIT-3 ion thruster, an iodine tank and landing legs. Can it land on the Moon with just an ion thruster?
- 1,613
0
votes
1
answer
130
views
S-Band transceiver schematics [closed]
I'm working on a cubesat, and I want to communicate in the S-Band, arround 2.4GHz. And I'm searching for schematics of a transceiver example with arround 35 dBm of output power. If any have a .pdf, ....
- 1,613