College students on the College of Arizona have constructed a cubesat to exhibit what they hope would be the reply to high-speed, low-cost area communication and information transmission for small satellites.
The 2-toned antenna, serving credence to the communication system’s seashore ball comparability, will launch in a stowed and folded configuration. As soon as in Earth orbit, the antenna will inflate utilizing a mixture of helium and argon, growing its preliminary floor space to supply elevated downlink speeds.
The cubesat — “CatSat,” as the scholars have dubbed it — will serve a twin function alongside its novel antenna take a look at. Devices reverse the seashore ball antenna will probe Earth’s ionosphere to review the propagation and adjustments of high-frequency radio indicators above the environment. Along with different onboard parts, CatSat’s devices will ship down high-resolution pictures of our planet at speeds beforehand unobtainable by comparably sized cubesats.
Associated: Cubesats: Tiny payloads, huge benefits for space research
Hilliard Paige, College of Arizona methods engineering pupil and CatSat’s lead system engineer, sees the antenna idea as a pathfinder for future missions. “Following a profitable launch, this inflatable antenna would be the first of its sort in area,” she mentioned in an online post (opens in new tab) from the college.
“The know-how demonstrated by CatSat opens the door to the opportunity of future lunar, planetary and deep-space missions utilizing cubesats,” echoed College of Arizona professor of astronomy Chris Walker.
By way of the College of Arizona’s commercialization efforts through Tech Launch Arizona, Walker co-founded an organization known as Freefall Aerospace, which developed the seashore ball antenna. Walker was additionally one of many College of Arizona school to submit the preliminary CatSat proposal to NASA underneath the company’s Cubesat Launch Initiative in 2019.
That proposal gained NASA’s approval, and CatSat was assigned a launch automobile — a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket, which is able to elevate off from Vandenberg House Power Base in California and ship the small satellite tv for pc to a 340-mile-high (547 kilometers), sun-synchronous orbit. If profitable, CatSat’s seashore ball antenna will then beam down close to real-time pictures of Earth.
CatSat doesn’t but have a goal launch date, although it is anticipated to get one later this yr, College of Arizona officers mentioned. Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
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(Picture credit score: Freefall Aerospace)
