IAC-05-B5.3./B5.5.

07

CUBESAT MICROSATELLITE WITH A BALLOON

Grzegorz Niemirowski
Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
[email protected]
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ABSTRACT

I’d like to describe a project of Astronautical Student Group on Warsaw University of

Technology. We are going to design and build a cubesat type microsatellite. It will be the
first entirely Polish satellite. The goal is to check influence of a balloon on a trajectory of
the satellite. The attitude isn’t known at this moment. It depends on the provider that will
agree to put our satellite into space. Usually cubesats can be found between 600 km and
800 km above the surface of the earth but the expected resistance of very sparse gases
isn’t high. 200 km - 400 km attitude would be better but it’s harder to find appropriate
provider. For some time cubesat will fly freely at a speed of about 8 km/s. The one wall
of the cube will open and a balloon will be released. It will be slowly filled by a gas. We
expect that it will slightly slow down the satellite and the attitude will be lower and
lower. Of course it will be very slow process. After a few months cubesat’s attitude will
be so low that it will burn in the atmosphere. At the moment of writing these words we
don’t know details of the construction. We will use simple microprocessor system, GPS
receiver and radio module to send information about position and speed to the ground
station and receive commands. Now the main problem is how to safely release the
balloon and fill it with a gas. We don’t want the balloon to be damaged or wrapped
around the satellite. Another problem are dimensions of the satellite. 10x10x10 cm cube
is very small and it’s hard to put there all needed devices. On the other hand it makes a
launch cheaper. Now we are consulting our project with professors and hope that the
satellite will be ready in Autumn 2006.

FULL TEXT

THE GOAL in space. Collected data will be

important for deorbiting
There are three main reasons for satellites.
building a cubesat microsatellite by our 2. Education of students who want
student group: to work in space industry in the
1. Measuring influence of a balloon future and who need to achieve
on trajectory of satellite traveling
 required technical skills and learn must be anodized or made of metal other
how to work in group. than aluminum.
3. Our satellite will be the first We are considering now three types of
entirely Polish one. We expect construction:
that it will put more attention on 1. two pieces of aluminum plate
space industry in our country. with holes cambered and put
together to make a cube
2. frame made of one piece
PHASES OF THE MISSION aluminum, reliable but not
flexible
1. Launching the satellite. 3. assembled from rods and
2. Bringing satellite to Low aluminum plates, can be easily
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Earth Orbit (LEO) 600-1000 rebuilt but requires many

km connections
3. Charging accumulators using
Sun’s energy because cubesat
can’t contain any electrical
charge during launch
4. Establishing communication
with satellite
5. Measuring position and
speed.
6. Opening the cubesat and
releasing a balloon.
7. Filling the balloon with gas
8. Measuring position and speed
of satellite and comparing
with previous data.
9. Deorbiting – altitude will be
getting lower and lower and
finally cubesat will burn in
the atmosphere.

STRUCTURE PAYLOAD

Cubesat must meet precisely specified The satellite is designed to release a

requirements so we have limited number balloon. It will be made of aluminized
of solutions. Satellite must be 10x10x10 mylar or zylon. These materials were
cm cube. It can’t weight more than 1 kg. positively tested in space. They are light,
It’s center of gravity must be less than 2 have superior strength, heat resistance
cm from the geometric center. and insulating properties. Another
Recommended material is aluminum important feature are good light
7075 or 6061-T6 or metal of similar reflection capabilities. We hope it will
thermal expansion. CubeSat has parallel be possible to see our balloon from Earth
rails attached to four edges. These rails using small telescope. The balloon will
 have nearly spherical shape of 1m
diameter. As gas we will use helium, the
pressure will be 30 Pa at final stage
Another important device is GPS
module. We think that SSTL SGR-05U
will be suitable. It provides GPS
standard time, position, and velocity
measurements in a compact and low
power unit. Dimensions are 75x45x10
mm. Mass: 20 g, power consumption:
0.5-0.8 W at 5 V. The only disadvantage
is price: about 10 000 GBP.
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COMMUNICATION

We will use four 17.5 cm metal stripes

as antennas. During launch they will
adhere to external surface of cubesat.
They will be connected with Dynema
fiber. Other ends will be attached to
satellite. Once on orbit a signal from
ONBOARD COMPUTER
ground station will initiate heating of
fiber and it will be blown. Antennas will
One of the most important issues in
straighten and create two perpendicular
designing microprocessor systems for
arms. We will use CC1020 transceiver
space engineering is cosmic radiation.
module. It is used on picosatellites. In
Particles of high energy can damage
standby mode it uses only 0.1 W and is
integrated circuits (IC) or change logical
easy to connect to a microcontroller. The
states. To prevent such problems we
emitted power will be 1.5 W. Sea
want to use triple program memory.
communication club “Szkuner” at
There will be a specialized IC which will
Gdynia Maritime University will serve
take data from these three memory ICs
as our ground station. They have 1.5 kW
and compare readings. If value read
transmitter, antenna gain: 14 dB. We
from one EPROM chip will be different
would like to ask for help other ARISS
than read from two others correction will
(Amateur Radio on the International
be made and proper value will be passed
Space Station) groups in receiving data
to microcontroller. It will be ATmega
from our satellite using AX25 protocol.
128 in our satellite. Three input devices
Communication concerns also legal
will be connected to microcontroller:
issues. We need permission for
1. temperature sensor
transmission from our national
2. pressure sensor
government institution (URTiP) and we
3. sensor detecting detaching from
need a band from International Amateur
P-Pod (P-Pod is a container and
Radio Union (IARU). We also have to
also a device which throws
send an application to coordinator of
cubesats into space)
Packet Radio and AmrpNet.
 There will be also three output devices: accumulator weights 27g, has 1200 mAh
1. something, probably resistor, of capacity and voltage 3.7 V.
which will blow Dynema fiber Accumulators will be connected in
and straighten antennas parallel and will be charged
2. mechanism opening one of walls approximately for 14 hours.
of cubesat and releasing a
balloon, details are not known at
this stage FUNDING AND MARKETING
3. valve which will let gas into the
balloon Building a satellite by students is not
Microcontroller will be also connected only technical matter. Usually such
to radio module and real time clock. project isn’t subsidized entirely by
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university so students need to find

money for their own. Moreover project
ATTITUDE DETERMINATION should be visible in media, especially
AND CONTROL SYSTEM (ADCS) it’s first Polish satellite. To accomplish
these goals we asked for help our
Our satellite needs ADCS for effective colleagues from Consulting Student
use of sunlight. We also would like the Group at Warsaw School of Economics.
satellite to be still during releasing of the They are responsible for preparing
balloon. And last but not list ADCS will strategy, acquiring support from firms
improve communication. We want to use and institutions, contacting with media
Earth’s magnetic field as a reference. and managing finances.
Using Honeywell magnetic field sensors
it will be able to determine set-up of
satellite in respect to Earth. Now, using
coils attached to walls of cubesat the
satellite could interact with Earth’s
magnetic field and rotate.

POWER SOURCE

Our cubesat will be taking energy from

the Sun. We will use monocrystalline
photocells. They are quite efficient and
have been tested in space. Square, 8x8
cm modules will be used. They are 1.2
mm thin and weight 2 g each. Maximal
voltage of a module is 1.04 V, maximal
current is 0.3 A and maximal power is
0.8 W. Voltage coming from photocells
is very small so we need voltage
converter. Sunlight won’t be accessible
all the time so we need accumulators.
We will use polymer ones. One such