Tracking Satellites

The team has been practicing receiving satellite signals from NOAA weather satellites using several softwares: Gpredict – for satellite pass prediction and tracking, SDR Console v2.3 – for receiving and recording satellite signal. The ground segment setup is a simple 5-elements 2m Yagi antenna mounted on top of a tripod, connected to a FUNCubeDongle Pro SDR radio and to a laptop.

The team consists of 4 people working together to track the satellite azimuth and elevation angle so that one would aim the antenna toward the satellite as it moves across the sky. Due to Doppler Effect, RX frequency is corrected in real time in order to have less noise. The audio signal was being recorded using SDR software. The recorded signal is then converted to images using WXtoImg.

An image from NOAA 19 passing over Masdar Institute 

 

Space Regulations

On Sunday (03/13/2016), the team discussed the space regulations as it is important to take them into consideration during the progress of defining the mission. 

Stating these regulations is a responsibility of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which was established in 1959, shortly after the launch Sputnik. The mission of COPUOS is “to review the scope of international cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space, to devise programmes in this field to be undertaken underUnited Nations auspices, to encourage continued research and the dissemination of information on outer space matters, and to study legal problems arising from the exploration of outer space.”

COPUOS is a part of the services that are introduced by The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), which was established to achieve the good for the outer space. 

Most of the regulations were stated for the good of the nations, individuals, earth and give the international organizations the equality in their mission based on the each capabilities. 

Documents: 

The following figure shows on which agreements the UAE agreed (2015), the details of each agreement can be found at UNOOSA website. 

Useful Links: 

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Committee_on_the_Peaceful_Uses_of_Outer_Space
2. http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/index.html
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1
4. http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/limited/c2/AC105_C2_2015_CRP08E.pdf

 

Today we looked in the financial aspects of the project. Based on the available budget, we explored different options for procurement planning. In the coming weeks, we will finalize our complete procurement plan. Meanwhile, we already started placing orders for some basic components. Looking into the financial aspects is not what students are used to in other projects. This is a challenge for us to manage our resources in the right way. This initial discussion on the finances will help us to take the right decisions on the components of our CubeSat from the beginning.

Orbital analysis with STK software

February 3, 2016

Today we have a STK training session and learned how to create simple scenarios in STK in order to perform orbital analysis of the CubeSat mission.

ADCS and data budget

February 7, 2016

Our class today discussed different methods for satellite attitude control and we also worked on how much data (including temperature, voltage, current measurement and photos) will be collected by our CubeSat and how long does it take to transmit these to the ground station.

Communication and link budget

February 2, 2016

Today our team discussed COMmunication subsystem of the satellite and performed preliminary link budget calculation. Our ground station will be set up here at Masdar Institute campus and it is designed to send uplink commands and receive downlink data from the satellite at range up to 2000km away.

Power Supply Unit and power budget calculation

January 31, 2016

Our class meeting today discussed the critical Power Supply subsystem of our CubeSat and did some basic power budget calculation. Since our CubeSat is very small, it generates very little amount of energy and it’s a real challenge to operate all CubeSat components within this power budget.

Project master schedule planning

January 27, 2016

Today we walked through the project master schedule, major milestones and associated deliverables for each. The goal is to launch our CubeSat in 2018 so schedule is tight, we have a lot of works to do but the team is determined to move forward!

Hello world!

We are a team of Master students from Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, UAE and we are working to design and build the Emirates’s second CubeSat (after Nayif-1 CubeSat built by Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology). Our little satellite weight just 1kg, it carries a small camera for UAE vegetation monitoring and a new type of battery for testing in space. We hope to launch our CubeSat into orbit in 2018!

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