Title: Future of NanoSatellites.
Abstract:
This report contains a brief report on the history and future of Nanosatellites. In this report, we get to know about some CubeSats and their main payloads. Before going deep into the cube sats we need to know about it clearly. This report is made on that.
Introduction:
Before moving into the core of cube satellites we need to know that what is CubeSat and how is it originated. If we want to make a CubeSat just mission isn’t important. We have to go with present upgraded technology and keep a lot of effort into nanotechnology. Basically, Nanosatellite is nothing but which takes less place and do more work. Nanosatellites will change the entire future. Nanosats are of many types it means it has many different sizes which are used accordingly. Cube satellites are the type of satellites which are usually of the size of 10cm x 10cm x 10cm. It has a mass of about 1kg.
First CubeSat cam in to picture in the 1990s and the first CubeSat was made by Stanford University students which were launched on 30th June 2003. [1] There are different sizes of Nanosatellites like 2U CubeSat (20cm x 10cm x 10cm) and 3U (30cm x 10cm x 10cm). Recently the larger Cubesat have been made of size 6U (10CM X 20CM X 30CM) and 12U (20cm x 20cm x 30cm)
Materials and methods :
“HISTORY OF CUBESAT” At first Scientists started to make small satellites which were the new invention of that time. Small satellites would have 500kg mass. Their mentality was that the small satellites, when used in large numbers, are more effective than large satellites. The small satellites are those which have the mass ranges between 100-500 Kg which are also called minisatellite. Some of the small satellites are Demeter, Essaim, Parasol, Taranis, Elisa. Then comes the era of microsatellites. These microsatellites have massed around 10kg to 100kg. Some of the microsats are Astrid-1 and Astrid-2. Then comes the Nanosatellites which have a mass range of about 1 Kg to 10 Kg. Few of the Nanosatellite are ExoCube (CP-10), ArduSat. The comes at the extreme one Picosatellites or picosats which have a mass range of about 0.1Kg to 1kg. These satellites require mother satellites for communication with the ground satellite. The launch cost of these satellites is very less as compared to the larger satellites. The examples of picosats are Studsat, Swayam, BeeSat-1. [2]
As cube satellites are the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites, this makes the design and the activities involved in the launch to be less complex. NASA has already planned for an interplanetary Cube satellite mission. Marco A, Marco B which will transmit the status back to Earth.[5]
Recently in May 2016, two cube satellites named Miniature X-Ray `solar spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat’s mad by NASA were launched from ISS. [3]
CuSP (CubeSat to study Solar Particles) is a microsatellite that will be launched by NASA to study the magnetic fields of space. The Sun releases a stream of particles and magnetic fields also called solar winds; the contents or the particles present in the solar wind are called Coronal Mass Ejections (CME's). These solar winds interact with our Earth's magnetic field and create an effect called Geometric Storm. So in simple words, we can say that this CubeSat will act as a Space Weather Station. [6]
RAVAN (Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes) is another CubeSat which is being used to measure the radiations reflected by the Earth. It will measure the Earth's radiation imbalance, which is the difference between the amount of energy from the sun that reaches back into space. This difference was estimated to be less than 1%. The European Union and NASA along with 23 other universities are presently working on the QB50 Cube Satellite project, which is made for doing atmospheric research in the lower atmospheric region. So the objective of these satellites is to get information about the composition of the thermosphere, the way it expands and contracts with solar activity and also to monitor different gaseous molecules of the thermosphere, its electrical properties and to better understand the space weather and its long-term trends. [7]
Several CubeSats have been launched by various universities from all around the world and have been successful. Few of them are: Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona - Their cube sat has been put into orbit to answer the fundamental questions of how the solar system was formed and to understand the surface dynamics of asteroids and comets.
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado - The Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems - Demonstrator (TEMPEST-D) provides risk mitigation for the TEMPEST mission that will provide the first temporal observations of cloud and precipitation processes on a global scale.
student, First Indian Pico satellite was developed by a group of about 45 students from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, India and was launched on 12 July 2010 by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. [4]
Fig. 1: Nano Satellites launched by various Countries [8]
Table1: Comparison of various parameters of sputnik1 and EST Cube 1 [9]
Some of the applications of Cube Satellites can be given as follows:
Education and Training - To give hands-on experience for the students and professors to design their own satellite. About 80% of the CubeSats launched until now are all made by the students and professors. [10]
Technological Experiment — To test new methodologies and techniques which can help improvise the satellite communication and help in space exploration etc
Scientific Research - To get the information on the atmospheric composition of celestial bodies, asteroids, etc.
Biological Purpose - To understand how the microgravity acts on humans and microorganisms.
Communication, Navigation and Interplanetary Missions.
Results:
Overall it can be said that the Cube Satellites are one of the potential Space Gadgets that are low in cost, easy to construct; less in weight, efficient but Single Purpose. These single-purpose satellites (Cube Sats) when work together can give us a tremendous amount of data which is very much useful as these satellites can be sent to those places where our normal or larger satellites can't go, they can also be used to get information on the Space Weather thus helping us to understand how the solar and cosmic activities affect our communication satellites or other satellites. They can be owned personally for navigation purposes; especially by the Shipping Companies. They can be used to study “Life in Space” by sending organisms in space and monitoring their activities. The Cube Sats can also be used for interplanetary missions for exploring the atmosphere and other features of the celestial bodies and giving us a cheaper way to explore them. [11]
Discussion:
The main part of this report is CubeSats give students a great experience which is valuable in this generation. Cubesats do work in a specific field and takes less time as compared to large satellites and have low payloads which are good things for students like me. It is very difficult to select an exact payload with limited mass. We have to think over and over for each and every component in the CubeSat. Even if we are adding a screw in it makes a lot of difference.
Cubesats like Marco A, Marco B, CuSP, RAVAN, OCSD which gives many awesome study reports. Many University students who were the members of these student satellite missions are happy with their works. The best thing about this Cube sats is it takes less place and deep nanotechnology knowledge. This is a challenging task for students of engineering and we are ready to face it. Till now what I researched about these satellites is they make a great impact on society with just a simple idea. Battery and main sensors make a great impact on nanosatellite which is a challenging task for everyone.
References:
1. R.A. Deepak, R.J. Twiggs, "Thinking Out of the Box: Space Science Beyond the CubeSat", JoSS, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 3-7, 2012.
2. S. Grahn, A. Rathsman, "ASTRID AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE THE MICROSATELLITE A USEFUL TOOL FOR SPACE SCIENCE", 9th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites Technical Session I: Hardware In Space, 1995.
3. Shaun Terrence Luther, SYSML BASED CUBESAT MODEL DESIGN AND INTEGRATION WITH the HORIZON SIMULATION FRAMEWORK, 2016.
4. C. Pinciroli, M. Birattari et al., "Self-Organizing and Scalable Shape Formation for a Swarm of Pico Satellites", IRIDIA - Technical Report Series ISSN 1781–3794 TRlIRIDIA/2008–009, 2008
5. A. Klesh, J. Krajewski, "Marco: CubeSats to Mars in 2016", 29th Annual AIAAlUSU Conference on Small Satellites, 2015.
6. A.S. Pulinets, P.N. Danilkin, G.K. Tsybulya, A.E. Pan'shin, "Space plasma environment at high and polar latitudes by the Cosmos 1809 satellite topside sounder data", General Assembly and Scientific Symposium XXXth URSI, 2011
7. Lorentz, P. Huang et al., "The Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes (RAVAN) CubeSat Mission: A Pathfinder for a New Measurement of Earth's Radiation Budget", 30th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, 2016
10. I. Nason, J. Puig-Suri, R. Twiggs, "Development of a Family of Picosatellite Deployers Based on the CubeSat Standard", Aerospace Conference Proceedings 2002
11. I. Nason, J. Puig-Suri, R. Twiggs, "Development of a Family of Picosatellite Deployers Based on the CubeSat Standard", Aerospace Conference Proceedings 2002
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