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.
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What are ways to store hydrogen for electric propulsion without a heavy pressure vessel?
This comment points out that any advantages of using low-mass ionized atomic hydrogen (i.e. protons) for electric propulsion if you had a fixed acceleration voltage and plenty of electrical power ...
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Could a cubesat propel itself to Mars?
I wrote the answer below to the question Could a cubesat be propelled to the moon? before realizing that it said Moon and I'd written it for Mars, so I've cloned that question and moved the answer ...
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Could a cubesat be self propelled to the moon from LEO?
Is it possible with current technologies to propel a cubesat, which is launched from Earth, to the moon?
If current propulsion systems are able to do so, how do I continue the research in this topic ...
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Among Quantitative Feedback Theory and H infinity, which one is preferred for robust control of satellites esp. small satellites? And why?
I am interested in designing a robust controller for a small satellite with antenna, sloshing propellant and flexible panels on board. I am mostly interested in achieving arcsec precision pointing ...
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How do we manage the residual magnetic moment of magnetorquer with a ferromagnetic core?
I'm currently working on a control algorithm, specifically in detumbling, for a 3U cubesat. I'm using magnetorquers for actuation and magnetometers to receive feedback. If I have no current passing ...
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Which Cubesat Cameras Actually Worked in Orbit before 2019?
Short question:
Which Cubesat Cameras Actually Worked in Orbit before the year 2019?
Context and explanation:
The very few missions which published at least one image I've found:
Planet Labs ...
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New Terran 1 rocket - launch costs for Cubesat
I was reading about the Terran 1 rocket and the fact that the founding company managed to secure the launch site at Cape Canaveral. Pretty amazing story on its own but then I looked at prices and they ...
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What is “OBJECT BS”?
I checked 2018-099 in Celestrak's satcat again for the question Where can I find the TLE of ExseedSat 1, India's first ever private LEO satellite? and noticed that ...
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Cost of an earth observation cubesat satellite like Planet-s Doves?
With the Cubesat standard and more and more components being available off the shelf, this should really bring down the price of building a (simple) earth observation platform.
I am curious how low a ...
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Could you track small particles in space and could you control their position with lasers or reflected light?
If you released a large amount of small but precise particles (the size of glitter or confetti) is space, between a group of cube sats.
Could you track the particles with cameras and/or lasers?
And ...
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The fine prints of launching a satellite
I have read about the space law, international and legal responsibility of the companies and countries involved and I must say it is complex, not to say scary. I can't imagine the lawyers' costs prior ...
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How are cubesat electronics protected against the effects of radiation in LEO?
I'm curious to know the various ways that cubesat electronics can be protected from the effects of cosmic rays or solar events while in LEO. How different are the components used in cubesats from some ...
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help understanding this complicated structure that will deploy HySIS
This ISRO page for the HysYS spacecraft says:
HysIS, the primary satellite of PSLV-C43 mission, weighing about 380 kg, is an earth observation satellite configured around ISRO’s Mini Satellite-2 (...
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How close will the cubesats be when numerous of them are launched simultaneously?
Checking the onboard video of PSLV C43 gives a feel like the CubeSats are released in very proximity.
Does this mean that these CubeSats will be orbiting in such very close proximity through out ...
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Cubesat mass density (kg/U) statistics?
The stuff of which COTS cubesats are made (aluminum, silicon, G10/FR-4, battery) has a density in the ballpark of 2 to 3 (g/cm^3) while vacuum is roughly 0. I'd always figured that cubesats built from ...
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What can be done in future mass-cubesat deploys to make them “less irksome” to orbital space debris experts?
In the first group of questions below the block quotes, I've illustrated situations where a large number of cubesats are deployed at one launch (56 an 104 satellites) and it seemed to take quite a ...
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Distributed computational power-sharing and orbital supercomputer
I had an interesting conversation last night with a nanosatellite engineer about how much computational power is required in a nanosatellite constellation and if it's necessary.
I had an idea or a ...
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Use or tests of multimode optical fiber for cubesat battery charging or datalink while in storage, or waiting to launch?
the idea of POF or power over fiber is to couple a moderate amount of solid state laser light, say a few hundred milliWatts or even several Watts (or potentially more, but it gets more challenging), ...
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Has a cubesat in LEO determined its orbit and position using only terrestrial cameras plus the Sun? (no GPS, starcam, uplink, magnetic sensors, etc.)
From LEO, a cubesat with several reasonable cell phone-like cameras (or better) can image the Earth and it seems straightforward for some standard pattern recognition algorithms to find the sunlit ...
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Typical 1U CubeSat Detumbling time determination using passive control?
I would like to be able to estimate roughly how long it takes for a 1U cubesat using a permanent magnet for passive control to detumble after the deployment at about 550 km.
Assuming there is some ...
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Yet another OSIRIS! Has the DLR/GOM Space test of the cubesat optical communications link happened yet?
Speaking of "all things OSIRIS" I just ran across the OSIRIS optical communications system for cubesats and smallsats.
OSIRIS (Optical Space Infrared Downlink System) highly compact optical ...
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Can a swarm of nano-probes act as a phased antenna of a greater power?
One problem with nano-satellites and generally any small spacecraft is that you can't fit a powerful power source and antenna - their usability outside vicinity of 'adult' satellites or Earth is thus ...
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What is this “space ring”? Is it SHERPA or something new, or just “art”?
In the orbitalreflector.com website there is a picture of a ring that looks like it can deploy smallsats as part of a more complex launch. Reverse image search turns up another view, both shown below.
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Attitude of the upcoming “Orbital Reflector”; will it result in good visibility?
There's a new (passive solar) orbital reflector, called the Orbital Reflector.
While Mayak (Маяк) was a crowdfunded project at Moscow State Mechanical Engineering University and the Humanity Star ...
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How will JAXA's space elevator-testing cubesat experiment work?
The Infobae article Japón inicia hoy el ambicioso proyecto de construir un ascensor espacial which translated from Spanish into English by Google says
Japan begins today the ambitious project to ...
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Interface CSP over UART on PIC 24FJ256GA110 with no operating system [closed]
I am using a PIC 24FJ256GA110 without an operating system. Is there any reference code I can use as a starting point to write the driver for the GOMSpace transceiver?
Also if someone has advice on ...
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What are the prospects for comms with cubesats using “normal” internet connections?
Can a cubesat in orbit be operated like a R/C airplane in real time?
edit: if the link here and the end aren't clear, I'm interested in the ease and convenience of access, the frequency of possible ...
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Hyperspectral Imaging from Low Earth Orbit
We're going to be putting a CubeSat into orbit next year and want to use a hyperspectral imaging device onboard.
My questions relates to the maths needed to calculate the imaging lens needed to ...
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MarCo, Polo? Any further news, or images, or transmissions from the MarCo deep space cubesats?
Edit: Two more months have gone by since I posted this question. Can there still be no news? Nothing for the two MarCo cubesats to take photos of; not even each other?
While InSight is still "under ...
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Looking for info about commercial usage of satellites with examples [closed]
I'm doing research for an article and I'm looking for info about usage of satellites by commercial companies. For instance, usage of small satellites by insurance companies (imaging and etc.) or ...
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Design Software Recommendations
I'm currently working on "base stones" of future cubesat mission and I'm doing some research for designing or simulation of cubesats. Software that I found on google costs enormous price and I'm ...
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Why can't we use MIMO antennas in a cubesat?
I understand that there are no scatterers in communication between ground station and satellite but does it mean it cannot be used or is it just inefficient ?
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How was/Was Kalam-sat Recovered from the Ocean?
I was reading this article about Kalam-SAT and it states that:
"Kalamsat fell into the sea. It will be recovered and NASA will be sending it back to us for decoding the data," [Srimathy Kesan, ...
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What can Halosat do that can't be done already?
The GIF included in the BGR article Watch the International Space Station poop out a tiny satellite that will search for (missing) matter which shows a 3U 6U cubesat ejected from the ISS.
The article ...
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Are the cubesats deployed from the ISS always directed “nadir and retrograde”?
@Tristan's answer to What are the orbital mechanical consideration behind hand-launched nanosatellites from the ISS? includes:
If you launch nadir and retrograde, you will put the object into a ...
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Why put both Orbex and Rocket Labs on adjacent launch pads in Scotland?
I've just read Jonathan Amos' article in the BBC News Lift-off for Scotland: Sutherland to host first UK spaceport and there appears to be a lot of activity discussed in this article.
From a "reserve ...
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How will Astrocast's upcoming IoT (Internet of Things) network in space work? What kind of “things” will be networked?
The Space Daily article Astrocast signs contract with GomSpace Sweden to deliver propulsion systems says in part
GomSpace Sweden - a subsidiary of GomSpace Group AB, has received an order from ...
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What are some objective that CubeSat's can complete/have completed?
I've been seriously considering looking into launching a CubeSat and it seems that the least of my worries would be design constraints. The money is less of an issue than the "why". There's plenty of ...
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CubeSat Design Requirements and Safety Restrictions?
I was reading XKCD, and came across this beautifully designed CubeSat:
It is dubbed SafetySat: "During launch, in the event of an unexpected sensor reading, SafetySat will extend prongs in all ...
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Optimal Thruster Layout For Cubesat
I am working on a simulation of a Cubesat for rendezvous. Using the Clohessy-Wiltshire equations I calculate delta-v. Now that I know the thrust needed for operation, I would like to know how to ...
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Typical time for a cubesat to start up after it is deployed
How long do cubesat take to start up completely after they are deployed?
I know the cubesat standard requires 30 minutes after initial separation from the launcher to deploy deployables such as ...
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Data from Cubesat as web API
I’m doing some research for possible cubesat mission and I spent days on the internet and in books trying to find a simple answer to my dumb question. I’m completely new in this field so I’m not sure ...
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How to determine the optimal orbit for a LEO satellite
Our goal is to determine the best orbit that will allow a ground station (so this is a fixed point on earth) to communicate a maximum number of times par day with a LEO satellite.
So the question is :...
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What stole the INSPIRE cubesat launch opportunity, and will there be another?
Doing research for this answer about interplanetary cubesats, I watched the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory YouTube channel video CubeSats (live public talk) of a talk by Dr. Andrew Klesh, Chief ...
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How can the two MarCO cubesats remain reliably close to InSight during their six month trip to Mars?
According to the NASA JPL web page Mars Cube One (MarCO) Mission Overview and the YouTube video MarCO: First Interplanetary CubeSat Mission linked there, after the Centaur upper stage deploys InSight, ...
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Raspberry Pis in Space?
I'm aware of the Astro Pi (1, 2, 3, 4) on board the ISS, but have there been any other instances of the RPi in space (Astro or not), for example in cubesats or other spacecraft which contain a ...
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How do Tom & Jerry (CANYVAL-X) measure their alignment with a distance source accurately?
According to the Spaceflight 101 article CANYVAL-X – Tom & Jerry:
CANYVAL-X is a two-satellite CubeSat mission aiming to demonstrate a Vision Alignment System that could enable a virtual ...
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Cubesat 6U and 12U maximum weight
What is the maximum weight for 6U and 12U cubesat in kg.?
Please, give links/references.
In this link it's stated that, 6U is 12kg, 12U is 24kg. But 1U is 1.33 kg, how is it possible?
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How long would a satellite fly on a sun-synchronous 600km orbit?
How long would it take for a 12U cubesat on a circular polar orbit with altitude 600 km to fall down to 500 km?
Please, add references/calculations to your answer.
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Reaction Wheels vs. Momentum wheels
I'm getting a bit confused on the difference between reaction wheels and momentum wheels. One of our objectives call for 3 momentum wheels for attitude control, with spin-up, spin-down, and reverse ...
