TechEdSat

TechEdSat

CAD Drawing of TechEdSat
Mission type Technology
Operator San Jose State University/JAXA/ÅAC Microtec/NASA
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type 1U CubeSat
Launch mass 1.2 kilograms (2.6 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date 21 July 2012, 02:06 (2012-07-21UTC02:06Z) UTC[1]
Rocket H-IIB
Launch site Tanegashima Y2
Deployed from ISS
End of mission
Decay date 5 May 2013
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Semi-major axis 6,795.131 kilometers (4,222.299 mi)
Eccentricity 0.0027290
Inclination 51.6567

The Technological and Educational Nanosatellite, or TechEdSat, is a series of CubeSats built by San Jose State University students in partnership with Ames Research Center and ÅAC Microtec.

The first TechEdSat had a mission to evaluate Space Plug-and-play Avionics (SPA) from ÅAC Microtec,[2] and was launched on an H-IIB carrier rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center on 21 July 2012 to the International Space Station, where it was deployed via the JAXA J-SSOD deployer.[3] on 4 Oct 2012.[4] It reentered to atmosphere on 5 May 2013.[5]

TechEdSat-2 was planned as a 6U CubeSat, a collaboration between ÅAC Microtec in Sweden and NASA Ames.[6]

TechEdSat-3p was a 3U CubeSat that was launched to the International Space Station on November 20, 2013 on a HTV-4 from Tanegashima, Japan and subsequently deployed into orbit using the JEM-Small Satellite Orbital Deployer. It tested an exo-brake to demonstrate a passive deorbiting.[7]

TechEdSat-4 is a 3U CubeSat mission developed, integrated, and tested at NASA Ames in partnership with student interns from San Jose State University in California and the University of Idaho. The objective of the TechEdSat-4 mission is to demonstrate new technologies including satellite-to-satellite communications and an upgraded exo-brake device to demonstrate a passive deorbiting. TechEdSat-4 was launched as a secondary cargo payload on the Cygnus CRS Orb-2 ISS resupply mission. The launch vehicle was the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares-120, launching from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, VA on July 13, 2014.[8] TechEdSat-4 was deployed from the International Space Station via the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer on March 4, 2015.[9][10]

TechEdSat

The first TechEdSat (later renamed "TechEdSat-1") was a 1-U cubesat to evaluate Space Plug-and-play Avionics (SPA) designed in Sweden by ÅAC Microtec. It was also originally intended to perform a communications experiment utilizing the Iridium and Orbcomm satellite phone network,[2] although this function was disabled before launch.[11] TechEdSat was deployed into orbit from the International Space Station on 4 Oct 2012.

Hardware[12]

TechEdSat Engineering Development Unit

Specifications

TechEdSat Solar Panel

Launch

TechEdSat was launched from Pad 2 of the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at Tanegashima on 21 July 2012, aboard Kounotori 3 atop an H-IIB launch vehicle. Kounotori 3 carried the satellite, along with the Raiko, We-Wish, Niwaka and F-1 spacecraft, to the International Space Station, from where it was deployed via the JAXA J-SSOD deployer, from the Kibo module on 4 Oct 2012 at 15:44:15.297 UTC.[4]

CubeSats deployed to orbit from the International Space Station on 4 October 2012 (from left: TechEdSat, F-1 and FITSAT-1).

Beacon Packet Format

TechEdSat-1 transmitted a heartbeat packet over amateur radio every 4 seconds. These packets are 122 ASCII character AX.25 packets, with the following structure. Amateur band radio frequency is 437.465 MHz.[13]

Two consecutive 12 bit raw ADC Data values are parsed into one 3 byte chunk in order to save data space. Each 3 byte chunk is represented in hex by 3 ASCII characters.

References

  1. ↑ Bergin, Chris (20 July 2012). "Japanese H-IIB launches HTV-3 to the International Space Station". NASASpaceflight.com. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 Gunter Dirk Krebs (January 31, 2012). "TechEdSat". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  3. ↑ 大塚実 (January 25, 2012). "JAXA、宇宙ステーションから超小型衛星を放出できる装置をプレス公開" (in Japanese). mynavi.jp. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  4. 1 2 "CubeSat Orbital Elements". Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  5. ↑ TechEdSat Twitter
  6. ↑ Gunter's Space Page, TechEdSat 2 (TES 2) (accessed 12 Sept 2014)
  7. ↑ TechEdSat 3 (accessed 12 Sept 2014)
  8. ↑ TechEdSat-4 (Technological and Educational Nanosatellite-4) (accessed 12 Sept 2014)
  9. ↑ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1815.html
  10. ↑ https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/content/-/article/techedsat-4
  11. ↑ AmSat, "TechEdSat to Use Satphone":
    The plan to transmit from space using frequencies allocated to Iridium and Orbcomm SatPhone ground stations has been canceled. A statement from the team says: “We were forced to disable the Iridium modem as our FCC license did not come in time. As usual, building the satellite is the easy part.”
    (accessed 12 Sept 2014)
  12. ↑ TechEdSat specifications (accessed 12 Sept 2014)
  13. ↑ "TechEdSat". IARU. April 3, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2012.

External links

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