STEC Pages

Space Technology Education Conference
Foreword Organisers Sponsors Opening Address Speakers Contreras Briess Sweeting Teston Eide Desobeau Tilmans Alminde Hardy Schilling Skullestad Foing Pedersen SSETI Groups Sseti teams Sseti support teams Other teams Conference Coordination Board
1 2 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 39 42 43
STEC 2004
Space
Technology
Education Conference
An educational process, being either of formal or practical nature, always has as its goal to help the student to gain a maximum of independence and competitiveness in the chosen field of studies. During the acquisition of knowledge the student is gradually given greater responsibility and obtains in exchange more freedom in the decision making process. The universities in charge of formal education give the students an excellent background of theoretical tools, but usually very little practical experience. Individuals are kept in an artificial "glass-house" during their university years constantly confronted with the outside world but freed from its responsibilities and guided, in the necessity of any decision making, by their professors. After graduation transition into industry is often accompanied by a long and costly training phase. One goal of the Space Technology Education Conference is to offer a starting point for the discussion that will hopefully lead in the future to an international cooperation in space education between universities, industry, space agencies and the SSETI Association. This cooperation structure should be capable of introducing students to space related activities by offering them supplementary education through hands-on experiences, and give them the possibility to step out of their "glass-house" and assume a reasonable amount of freedom and responsibility aside from, but in harmony with, their formal academic progress. Education is essentially the passing on of the teacher's personal experience, but as the student slowly matures this unidirectional process becomes bidirectional and knowledge and experience are no more taught but shared. A second goal of the conference is to support this exchange of knowledge by giving the possibility to experienced space experts, young engineers and students, having made their first steps in the fields of space exploration and technology, to exchange ideas and share their experiences. This booklet forms the first step; it contains abstracts outlining the presentations and an overview of the work done by student groups in various European universities. Its lecture will hopefully trigger your interest and help to initiate many constructive and interesting discussions. In the name of the SSETI Association and the EPFL Space Centre, I would like to thank all the contributors to this booklet, experts and students alike, to have given us some insights into their work. I would further like to thank the ESA Education Office and the Swiss Space Office for their enormous support and sponsorship during the preparation of this conference. Finally to you, dear reader, I wish an excellent stay in Lausanne and hope you will enjoy your participation at STEC. Renato Krpoun EPFL Student & SSETI Association Vice-President
STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference
SSETI
Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative
Initiative
The objective of the Space Exploration and Technology Initiative is to create a network of students, educational institutions and organisations facilitating the distributed design, construction and launch of (micro)-satellites. Aiming to create a talented workforce for the 21st century the initiative seeks to enhance scientific and technical literacy in Europe and develop strong relationships with both industry and the educational communities. This is achieved by involving a large number of young Europeans and increasing their interest in space technology and science by involving them in real space projects and providing an unequalled learning and motivational experience through hands-on experience. More than 20 teams from different European countries are designing the first European Student Satellite. The project was launched in 2000 and has been supported by ESA since then.
Programme & Missions

SSETI is a long-term programme composed of different projects. There are at the moment two missions under preparation and a third one should be started soon. The first short-term mission, called SSETI Express, is based on knowledge gained so far and existing equipment. The mid-term goal of having a modular and flexible satellite bus will be achieved when the second mission, the European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO), is launched. And finally, a long term mission to leave our Earth and reach for the Moon, should start in September 2004 and is called the European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO).
for more information : www.sseti.net
Association
The initiative was launched in the year 2000 by ESA's Office for Educational Project Outreach Activities and was given a legal fundament and a vision for the future in 2003 when it became the SSETI Association. The SSETI association has been formed to support and develop the network of students created within the SSETI project, to give a legal structure to the project and to improve interactions between ESA, universities, supporting the designing team, national entities and industries. Thus the SSETI Association is a body of student participants independent of ESA. It was formed in June 2003 in order to offer the students the benefits associated with being a legal entity, and also to favour a high degree of student autonomy in the SSETI project. Members of the associations are the teams involved in the SSETI project that cooperate to reach the goals stated in the programme. To guide the work of each team there is a coordinator, chosen by and among the students, who, as full member of the association, has voting rights during general assemblies. The president of the association and the other positions on the executive board are students elected by the other members.
ESEO - European Student Earth Orbiter
EPFL
cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne
Situated in the heart of Europe, the cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL) is one of the two Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. EPFL delivers courses in all leading fields of modern technology, with a particular focus on inter-disciplinarity one of the greatest sources of innovation. Within this
space robotics, with new locomotion concepts and navigation systems for planetary exploration, including rovers from a few grams to ten kilograms; iii) the increased study of navigation principles for the Mercury Robotic Payload (MRP-ESA) and finally iv) an autonomous, solar-powered airplane for Mars exploration, the Sky Sailor project. The support and follow-up of student projects and associations is also an important aspect of the space activities at EPFL. Numerous students participate in space related projects, including most recently the PreMARS team that has won the first Aurora student design contest in the category "new enabling technologies". They proposed a mission consisting in growing a plant on Mars using the resources available on the surface. The concept was found interesting by ESA who gave the
Startiger III (Sky-sailor project)
broad context, EPFL has identified space technologies as one of its priorities. At the intersection of mechanics, electrical engineering, micro-technology, and material science, the School of Engineering (Science et Techniques de l'Ingnieur) has the responsibility to drive this effort and to foster collaborations across the entire campus and with additional national and international academic institutions. From 2004 onwards, space-related education and research activities will increase with the nomination of new faculty, the strong involvement of Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier - already an EPFL Professor - and the creation of the EPFL Space Center. The Center, made possible by the support and partnership of RUAG AG, already involves the University of Neuchtel and will seek strong collaborations with the Swiss Space Office (SSO), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Swiss Space Industry. Current space-related projects at EPFL and its partner institutions, benefit from previous experience gained in a wide range of fields including: space robotics, solar cells and antennas, atomic force microscope scanners (institute of microtechnique of neuchtel), aerodynamic studies, actuators, materials and structures. Current new projects include: i) the development of advanced technology to enable the integration of solar cells and antennas onto one same surface, called ASOLANT; ii)
students the opportunity to participate in a concrete mission study. Furthermore three EPFL teams have been selected for the 7th Student Parabolic Flight Campaign in 2004. The various experiments being performed during this zero-g flight will consist in a flying robot, the analysis of the motion of a robotic arm in variable gravity and the placement and soldering of SMD components in microgravity. The EPFL Space Center will harbor and support selected academic projects but it should also develop into an enabling platform to integrate teaching, research and technology transfer activities. The latter will be done in close collaboration with the Swiss Space industry, in order to promote global R&D for space applications in Switzerland. EPFL has a strong tradition to organize public events during which the general public is able to attend talks, exhibitions and courses linked to space technology. One of the highlights of this year is the present STEC'04 conference with which the EPFL would like to support the efforts of the SSETI Association to spark the interest of students all across Europe towards interdisciplinary space projects.
Prof. Roland Siegwart - Prof. Stefan Catsicas

Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne 1015 Lausanne Switzerland Tel : +41216931111 www.epfl.ch
ESA
European Space Agency
ESA Education Office

Education Office, ADM-AE ESA - ESTEC Postbus 299 2200AG Noordwijk The Netherlands Fax : +31715655590 education@esa.int
2. Parabolic Flight Campaigns for European Students. Each year 120 European Students get a chance to experiment weightlessness and to develop their own experiment to perform in 0 gravity. The experiments are flown on board novespace A300 and students get 30 times 20secondes of micro-gravity to perform their tests. Experiments can be physics as well as life science or educational. 3. SSETI The Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative gives opportunity to students all over Europe to work on real space missions. At the moment more than 200 students from 12 European Countries are involved in SSETI and building the first pan-European student satellites. More information on this programme can be found under www.sseti.net.
ESA has recently made Education its fifth priority and field of activity. The two main objectives of our office are: 1. To reach a significant number of young people and motivate them to enhance their literacy in science in general Space in particular. 2. To stimulate talented youngsters to dedicate their career to Space favouring a highly skilled workforce for the 21st century. These objectives are met by addressing young Europeans, aged from 6 to 28, through different projects and informing them about various activities designed for their specific age group. This large number of educational projects is coordinated by a very dynamic group of young professionals in the Education office and is organised around three main axes : Hands- On Projects, Primary and Secondary Education and Higher Education. Here are some of the main activities of the office relative to students : 1. "Physics on Stage" : A festival for teachers. Each year several hundreds of teachers are invited to attend the festival and the fair. Teachers are selected by national steering committees and join together to share ideas and practices on how to educate sciences at school increasing the interest of students. Three successful editions already took place, the next one should be in April 2005 in France and with a broader interest : "Sciences on Stage".
4
4. IAF and student participation programme. To favour interactions between students and professionals and to enhance a sort of generation handover, opportunity is given every year to students to attend the Internation Astronautical Congress. Hundreds of students have already successfully participated in this programme that is now being extended to other conferences like COSPAR or workshops in ESTEC. 5. YES 2 Young Engineer Satellite 2 is a project co-managed by Delta-Utec (Space Research and Consultancy). The project will demonstrate Space Mail, the return of small re-entry capsule from space to Earth, using new technology; the deployment of a tether in space. It is a promising alternative for the de-orbiting of payloads. The capsule is inherently safe meaning that it is planned to land as soft as a feather but if the inflation system fails, the capsule will burn during the re-entry. Primary and Secondary Education Many efforts are also put on these age groups. Tools for teachers and schools as well as web sites and games for children are developed and available on the net.
Medley of Education Office projects
SSO
Swiss Space Office Our Mission
Under the direct authority of the State Secretary for Science and Research and in cooperation with other offices and organisations involved in space matters, the SSO is the administrative unit charged with planning and implementing Swiss space policy, as defined by the Federal Council. For this purpose, the SSO is the executive body of the Federal Space Affairs Commission (CFAS) and chairs the Interdepartmental Committee for Space Affairs (IKAR). The secretariat of both of these groups is located at the SSO. The SSO has prime responsibility for Swiss participation in ESA programmes and activities and oversees the budget. The SSO looks after Swiss interests within ESA, in the political, institutional, legal, financial, industrial, sciences, applications and infrastructure programmes. Under the SSO's guidance, the Federal Office for Professional Training and Technology (OFFT), the Federal Finance Administration (AFF) and the Foreign Ministry's Political Division III (DP III/DFAE) give their support on technological, financial and political aspects, respectively. The SSO leads the Swiss Delegation to ESA and chairs the Delegation's coordination meetings.
The SSO assures that Swiss space policy is consistent in international operational satellite utilisation organisations such as EUTELSAT, INTELSAT, IMSO and EUMETSAT as well as in the respective bodies of the United Nations and the European Union where Switzerland is represented.
Based at the Swiss Embassy in Paris, the Permanent Delegate to ESA, who represents Switzerland in the advisory bodies and administrative authorities of ESA, is part of the SSO. He especially assures consistency with and consideration of Switzerland's positions and interests within these groups.
Swiss Space Office Hallwylstrasse 4 CH-3003 Berne e-mail : info@sso.admin.ch
Claude Nicollier working on the Hubble Space telescope during the Space Shuttle mission STS-103 in 1999.
Professor
Claude Nicollier
The conference opening address will be held by Professor Claude Nicollier who has been chosen in 1978 as a member of the first group of European astronauts and was selected in 1980 for astronaut training by NASA. Veteran of four Space Shuttle flights he has logged more than 1000 hours in space. Appointed to his four flights as a mission specialist he has operated the shuttles robotic arm during his three first missions, while during his last flight, STS-103, he conducted repairs on the Hubble Space Telescope during his first space walk. Prof Nicollier has been appointed professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in November 1994 and will hold his first course at EPFL this spring entitled "Space Technology and Operations".
Lessons learned from 20 years of small satellites at CNES,
is a student satellite
possible?
Pierre-Louis Contreras, CNES
The presentation will begin with a very short recall of the history of small sats at CNES and of today activities. We practice small satellites since the beginning of CNES mainly for scientific missions, today it has been raised as a major priority for the missions themselves and their costs but also for maintaining in house technical abilities. The Myriade microsatellite project is on the way and six satellites are under construction. The first launch is planned for this summer. Some technical figures will follow to identify the different categories. Some examples of activities made with the students will be given. We had long projects (about 8 years) with students, universities and CNES with good or bad results. Some French schools made quite alone one satellite, it worked and it had no follow-up. We had short projects stopped because the team was not strong enough.
In other cases it is due to the way to build and realize the hardware too lightly. Other main problems can occur in term of organisation of the work of the teams. Documentation as technical memory provides troubles because generally there are several generation of students working on the same project, the new team has to learn from the previous one and information is lost, the
Pierre-Louis Contreras CNES, Communication et Education 18, avenue Edouard Belin 31401 Toulouse cedex 4 -FRANCE E-mail: pierre-louis.contreras@cnes.fr
Artist impression of the CNES built Demeter satellite, part of the Myriad micro-satellite project.
Some other projects have been resized even to balloon projects which provide also a good "space like" practice. We will try to understand the reasons of these successes and failures.
Finally, we will explain what we feel as the key problems to success. Sometimes technical problems slow the work, but it is probably not the major concern because in most of the case students have the support of professionals (if they find time) who are able to redirect the project.
duration of the project increases this effect. What the students really do in the project is also a parameter. To end it is pointed out that generally when the student satellite project begins, the launcher is not clearly identified. So the launch technical constraints are not strongly considered and many projects die in vibrations... But the conclusion remains optimistic if the project stays simple and quick. A short discussion with the audience will conclude the presentation.
The micro satellite mission BIRD of the German Aerospace Centre, DLR, is dedicated to fire evaluation from space by means of new technologies. The mission was established in a cooperational framework with the Fraunhofer/FIRST research centre in Berlin and several small and medium sized companies. Beside this also ca. 20 students are temporarily involved in the project team in Berlin solving different tasks. Even ca. 4 pupils have contributed to the preparation of the BIRD mission as part of the team for several weeks. In this project the Technical University Berlin is an important cooperation partner with special experience in micro satellite projects and space education. For 15 years students are involved in micro- and nano-satellite projects of the Technical University Berlin. 6 Satellites are implemented in orbit successfully. This excellent experience in space education combined with special BIRD know how will be continued during the next years in designing, building, testing and operating cubesats primarily with students. The lecture courses will give the theoretical knowledge and background. Working in an integration lab, in a receiving station, at different places with structure test facilities and exercises in mission control will develop the practical experience, skills and know-how of the students in space education. The presentation covers the different aspects of space education at the TU Berlin in the past, today and in the future.
Space Technology Education

at TU Berlin
Klaus Briess, Hakan Kayal
Institut fr Luft- und Raumfahrt Marchstrae 12-14 D-10587 Berlin www.ilr.tu-berlin.de/
BIRD ready for a vacuum-chamber test

8 STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference
Space education
through direct participation

25 years of pioneering small satellites at Surrey
Sir Martin Sweeting
Surrey Space Centre Guildford Surrey GU2 7XH England email: m.sweeting@sstl.co.uk www.sstl.co.uk
construction of research payloads onboard some of the 23 small satellites built, launched and operated in low Earth orbit by Surrey.
In a similar manner whereby the Personal Computer has brought access to modern information technologies and worldwide communications within the everyday grasp of the general public, small satellites have brought direct participation and access to space within the reach of students worldwide. Starting out as a group of PhD students with a wild ambition in 1979, the University of Surrey has pioneered the development of modern, increasingly capable microsatellites, minisatellites and even nanosatellites. By 2004, this small team has now grown to 225 academics, postgraduate students and commercial staff at the Surrey Space Centre & SSTL. Over 500 undergraduate and postgraduate students have experienced direct involvement in Surrey's satellite activities through projects and, occasionally, through the
The unique configuration and symbiosis that has been established at Surrey between the academic research and teaching activities of the Surrey Space Centre and the commercial satellite missions undertaken by SSTL has provided powerful educational opportunities and exposure to the realities of 'commercial space' - indeed not just for Surrey students but also for trainee engineers from 12 developing countries who have acquired indepth hands-on satellite know-how through collaborative microsatellite programmes and, in many cases, have since returned to their countries to establish national space agencies.
However, small satellites are now not simply educational, research or demonstrational tools but, within the last few years, their capabilities have grown to begin to rival conventional large satellites for certain applications and this has brought about a major change in both civil and military space thinking.
PROBA,
an ESA technology demonstration mission
F. Teston
European Space Agency/ESTEC TOS -EL PO box 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk The Netherlands
PROBA principal objectives are in-orbit evaluation of new spacecraft technologies. PROBA, however, was also the first satellite for Belgium and for the Prime Contactor as well as for several companies involved in the development. Two universities participated also to the development and several key engineers in industry were having their first experience with this project. ESA was involved in this project as final customer and technical expertise. PROBA onboard automatic functions include all payload operations scheduling and execution, target fly-by prediction and control of cameras pointing and scanning from raw inputs from users (target latitude, longitude and altitude). The point and stare requirements of the High Resolution Camera (HRC), as well as the multiple images scan requirement to support Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) measurements with the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) are satisfied with the specified accuracy, by this small and agile gyro-less platform, whose attitude determination is based on autonomous star trackers only. PROBA main Earth imaging payload, CHRIS, weighting only 14 kg, is used to measure directional spectral reflectance. HRC is instead a black and white camera with a miniaturised Cassegrain telescope providing 5 m geometrical resolution images. PROBA users to date include more than 60 Earth observation Principal Investigators from scientific Institutes within Europe. Two additional Earth environment instruments are flown. SREM a radiation monitor and DEBIE an instrument to detect sub-millimeters debris. The expose will describe the spacecraft technical features, the in orbit results and the programmatic set-up of the project.
Pictures taken from the PROBA spacecraft
PROBA (Project for On Board Autonomy) is a technology demonstration mission of the European Space Agency's General Support Technology Programme. PROBA was launched on October, 22nd, 2001 on a LEO Sun-synchronous 681x561 km orbit. The spacecraft mass is 94 kg, with 25 kg dedicated to scientific and Earth observation instruments, in addition to the technology demonstration payloads.
10
NCUBE
The Norwegian Student Satellite Project
Egil Eide
The Norwegian student satellite, NCUBE, is an experimental spacecraft that is developed and built by students from four Norwegian universities in the time period 2001 - 2004. The project was initiated and funded by the Norwegian Space Centre with support from Andya Rocket Range, Norway. The main mission of the satellite is to demonstrate ship traffic surveillance from a satellite using the maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS) recently introduced by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The AIS system is based on VHF transponders located onboard ships who broadcast the position, speed, heading and other relevant information from the ships at regular time intervals. Another objective of the satellite project is to demonstrate reindeer herd monitoring from space by equipping a reindeer with an AIS transponder during a limited experimental period. This part of the project is conducted by the Norwegian Agriculture University. A third objective is to demonstrate efficient attitude control using a combination of passive gravity gradient stabilization and active magnetic torquers. The project is organised with student workgroups at each university. The project management is done by the Norwegian Space Centre while the technical coordinator has the role as systems manager. In the initial phase, a total of 63 students were involved in the project. The design phase involved 16 masters degree students, while the implementation and test phase is performed by 10 students and 6 supervisors. The launch is organized by California Polytechnic State University and will take place from Kazakhstan between September 1, 2004 and November 30, 2004. The communications system is based on using amateur radio frequencies in the VHF and UHF frequency bands using the AX.25 protocol with either 1200 bps or 9600 bps data rate.. Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the satellite system architecture. The Terminal Node Controller serves as the communications interface to the VHF receiver and the UHF and S-band transmitters. All telecommands are validated by the Telecommand
Decoder who forwards the instructions to each subsystem using the I2C Telecommand Bus. The main subsystems are the AIS receiver payload, the ADCS system and the Power Management Unit. The Data Selector is used to connect the different subsystems to the TNC during transmission down to the ground station. By using this architecture, it is possible to test and verify each subsystem independently during the implementation phase. For attitude stabilization, the satellite contains a 1.5 meter long deployable gravity gradient boom consisting of steel measuring tape and a counterweight of 40 grams at the outer end. The gravity gradient boom also serves as a VHF antenna for the payload. The mechanical structure is manufactured by the University of Oslo. Five of the satellite satellite's six surfaces will be covered by monocrystaline solar cells that are manufactured by Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), Norway. The power subsystem operates within the voltage range of a typical Lithium-Ion cell, 3.7 to 4.2 volts, and all peripheral equipment is interfaced with a set of DC/DC converters adapting to the voltage demand. The power supply system was designed by students from Narvik University College. An important activity in the project has been to design two different ground stations for the satellite. One station is located in Narvik and the other is currently being assembled at Svalbad.
NCUBE prototype mechanical structure.
Norwegian University of Science and Technology O.S. Bragstads Plass 2B, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway Email: eide@iet.ntnu.no
11
On ground, it's useless. Space is its place! But ... how to get there?
Jean-Michel Desobeau
Jean-Michel Desobeau, Arianespace Boulevard de l'Europe, 91006 Evry Cedex - France jm.desobeau@arianespace.fr
An Ariane 5 sets off into space from its launch pad at the Guiana Space Centre, Europe's space port
As early as 1980, the Ariane launch vehicles began to provide occasional launch opportunities to radio-amateurs and scientists. During the early generations of Ariane 1, 2 and 3 three auxiliary payloads were launched: 2 for AMSAT and one for the Swedish Space Centre. But since no specific system was defined, the payloads were treated on a case-by-case basis, hence making their design completely specific, their launch configuration unique and the whole process long and difficult. With the arrival of the Ariane 4 launch vehicle series, Arianespace decided to provide more frequent and easier launch opportunities to space agencies, scientists, radio-amateurs, universities etc To this aim Arianespace decided to develop a carrying structure called ASAP4 (Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads) for mounting and deploying satellites. In 18 years, by mostly using this ASAP4 system, 26 auxiliary payloads were successfully deployed on orbit by using Ariane 4 missions designed for the larger Arianespace Main Passenger(s). In the legacy of what had been successfully implemented on the previous Ariane 4 versions, the Ariane-5 launch vehicles continue to provide launch opportunities to space agencies, scientists, radio-amateurs, universities and other organisations. These opportunities are offered either on the Arianespace developed structure called ASAP5 (Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads) or thanks to some other innovative solutions,
but always giving the auxiliary payload a dedicated interface. Like on Ariane 4, the Ariane 5 auxiliary payloads are launched on-board missions designed for the Main Passenger(s). The Ariane 5 being much larger and more powerful than Ariane 4, it naturally provides much larger mass and volume envelopes to auxiliary payloads than the ASAP4 on Ariane 4. Auxiliary Payloads are flown to the orbit defined by the Main Passenger(s); for Ariane 5, these orbits are chiefly Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) but also Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) or else (LEO, MEO, etc). A typical Ariane 5 GTO mission is 200 - 300 km x 35'786 - 45'000 km and 4 - 7 inclination. For the microsats on Ariane 5, the separation system is provided by Arianespace and provides an adjustable distancing velocity between 1 and 3 meters per second. All specific interface information is available in the ASAP5 User's Manual.
After successful completion of its in-flight qualification, the Ariane 5 is now fully operational. This vehicle has already performed 14 commercial flights, successfully and accurately delivering on their required orbits 22 main passengers and 5 auxiliary payloads. To allow realistic budget preparation, Arianespace has publicly released "cataloque" prices for providing standard launch services within standard conditions: * for one microsat (120 kg max.):3.0 MEuros * for one minisat (600 kg max.):10.0 MEuros These all-inclusive prices include delivery of adapter & connector hardware, the ASAP5 or other adapter system, all Arianespace technical assistance, the mission analysis studies and the flightworthiness work with the auxiliary passenger team as well as the necessary support during the preparation campaign for the launch in Kourou, French Guiana. The forthcoming addition of the Soyuz and Vega systems to the Arianespace vehicles family will also open new opportunities to the Auxiliary Passengers.
12
ThePROBA Ground Infrastructure and Mission Operations.

Etienne Tilmans
PROBA stands for PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy. It is the first ESA technological and demonstration mini satellite. Apart from the experimental aspect, it fulfils also a scientific mission, which is now extended beyond the original 2 years lifetime. The project development time until the launch was short, from 1998 to October 2001. The operation environment developed for PROBA-1 was kept "light" but with a high degree of automation in order to support fully automated satellite passes without manning. It provides to the ESA Project, the Industry support, the end-user and the Principal investigator a Web access to retrieve the satellite and the payload data made available shortly after the satellite pass.
European Space Agency/ESTEC
s
Agence Spatiale Europenne Station de REDU, B-6890 Redu Belgium etienne.tilmans@esa.int
The PROBA spacecraft was launched by the Indian PSLV Launcher on the 22nd October of 2001 on a Sun Synchronous Orbit. It is a 3The Redu ground station in Belgium axis stabilized satellite with a high platform manoeuvring capability. The advanced avionics of the satellite confers a high degree of ment units. It is the key element of the automation of autonomy and required robustness which are a driving the ground segment tasks progressively put in place factor on the way to conduct the operations. The main along the mission. It allows also the automatic email payloads are two imagers (Compact High-Resolution generation in case of any warning message. It is comImaging Spectrometer and High Resolution Camera) pleted by the automated pass template tool which scheand two space environment instruments (Standard dules the pass activities and provides a graphical interRadiation Environment Monitor and DEBris In orbit face of the activities statuses. The NORAD Two Lines Evaluator). The mission is included in the ESA Earth Elements automatically retrieved from the Web, are Observation Programme but it serves also general inteused to predict with a COTS software the ground starest users and it is intended to play a role in the frame tion visibilities. The antenna pointing angles are also of the International Charter on Space and Major derived from the TLEs. Disasters.The EduPROBA Belgian initiative was an invitation to the secondary schools under the form of a competition to submit proposals to utilize the satellite The success of the mission is due to a series of factors, payload. That concerns mainly the imagers and the picthe main ones being: a small coherent and motivated tures acquisition is still ongoing. Project and Industry team, the use of modern software technology, an innovative and robust satellite design The main elements of the ground segment are a fully making the operations more simple and less critical and steerable S-band antenna of 2.4 m., a baseband equipfinally an easy programmable operations environment. ment, a control system based on the ESA SCOS II Although the presentation will give more details about system used also during the ground test and integration the Mission characteristics, the ground infrastructure, phase, a planning system and a data server. A unique the EduPROBA initiative and the mission results, it will script language allows to interface with the telemetry also highlight the mission elements which impact posiand the telecommand server of the control system and tively the operations: the satellite autonomy and robuto control all the pass activities from the preparation to stness, and the ground segment automation. the post-processing phase and most of the ground segSTEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference 13
AAU-cubesat:
a successfull student satellite
Lars Alminde
In the summer of 2001 it was decided to initiate the AAU-Cubesat project at Aalborg University in Denmark. This project was made possible due to the cubesat concept, which has been developed at Stanford University and California polytechnic institute lead by professor Bob Twiggs. This concept allows a satellite of dimensions 10x10x10cm and mass 1kg to be launched into low Earth Orbit at a total launch cost of about 40,000USD. The motivation was to let engineering students from various departments cooperate in the completion of a very large project and thereby give them a unique chance to participate in a project that not only needs good engineering skills, but also the skills to solve problems that are inter-disciplinary of nature. In the initial period of the project it was decided by the students that the scientific mission of the project should be Earth Observation and many ideas were studied, but they were all found to be to technical challenging to implement on a platform as small as the cubesat. After many meetings it was finally decided to fly a camera without a specific scientific purpose for it, but rather use the satellite as an technology evaluation mission preparing the ground for future scientific missions using the cubesat concept. The satellite was completed in April 2003 and was transported to Canada, together with three students, to undergo environmental qualification tests together with the other satellites to be deployed from the same deployment mechanism. From Canada it was transported to Plesetsk in Russia, where it was functionally tested and the batteries were conditioned before the launch on the 30th of June 2003. In the first days following launch it took a lot of Aalborg University, Denmark coordinated effort lalm00@control.auc.dk of all the involved operation teams,
together with the NORAD tracking radars, to locate and identify all the satellites separated from the launch vehicle. For the first 24 hours no distinct signal was heard from AAU-cubesat, but hereafter the operation team was able to detect the beacon signal with increasing confidence. After about 4 days it was clear that the satellite had been successfully located, but the transmitted signal strength was far below expected. Therefore the ground station was relocated 200km to make use of an 8m dish antenna. When the new ground station was finally fitted for operations in the correct frequency (1 month after launch) signal was received with enough strength to decode some of them, but at this point the beacon intervals and the decoded signals started to indicate massive loss of battery capacity leading to frequent returns to the contingency charge mode of operation, which does not supply power to the OBC. Unfortunately the degraded battery condition made it impossible to establish a real datalink connection and download extensive house keeping data, but simple twoway communication was established (pinging) demonstrating that the complete data path from ground station to OBC and back was functional.
AAU Cubesat flight model radio test in the anechoic chamber
14
e
What Is A 'Small satellite' And Who Cares Anyway?
David Hardy - ESA The standards and norms we are indoctrinated with at school and university today are not absolute - they change and evolve over time. The students of today take computers, mobile phones and the internet for granted and wouldn't know where to turn without them. Give them a slide rule and most would not know what to do with it. Technology's rise over the last 150 years has been explosive - it took thousands of years before man could travel faster than a galloping horse, but it took only 66 years to go from the first ever powered flight of a few metres (at around 200 Km/hour) to landing on the moon (necessitating a flight at around 8 Km/second). But there are pitfalls in accepting all this technology without question and losing sight of how we got to our present state.
s
ject make many of the same mistakes over again, partly because of not taking the trouble to find out what has gone before and partly through the 'arrogance of inexperience' in much the same way as the average teenager thinks their parents are retarded morons and it takes them until middle-age to realise that those parents actually knew a thing or two.
Powerful processors and sophisticated software now allow fully autonomous spacecraft such as Proba-1 and the Martian landers to achieve what was science fiction only twenty years ago. Proba achieved this with 30% of its mass dedicated to the payload, but the farther you go from Earth the more mass you need for propulsion and powerful communications, and 'small' spacecraft cease to be practical - Smart-1 had a launch mass of 350 Kg
ESA-ESTEC, TOS-EDD, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands, david.hardy@esa.int
It is still less than 50 years since the first ever manmade object orbited the Earth. Back then the concepts of Solar wind; Van Allen belts and the shape and extent of the Earth's magnetic field were all theoretical ideas which only became 'real' in the 1960's. The effects of microgravity on the human body and its functions were unknown until the 1970's and the long-term effects, not only for humans but also for plants and animals, are still to be unravelled. Euro pean Space Agency/ESTEC This presentation, drawing on personal experiences of more than 35 years in the space industry, attempts to put in perspective the phenomenal changes which have taken place over those years and the relevance they still have. So many projects, following a successful launch and early orbit phase have done a few weeks of soulsearching to write up a 'lessons learned' document, which has promptly been filed in an archive and forgotten about. A few years later, new people on a new pro-
Teamsat - ESA's 'student satellite' being integrated in Kourou
with only 5% as payload - and the more autonomy you need due to the long transmission loop delays and shorter contact periods. Despite all the advances, we've barely scratched the surface of all there is to know and do and the present student community has to carry the achievements forward for the following generations. The technology we need to send people into space for long periods and to distant planets does not exist yet. So the message is clear - don't waste time re-inventing the wheel; learn from our mistakes; have fun making your own and fulfil your destiny to 'carry forward an ever-advancing civilisation'.
15
CubeSats
Students Design and Realise Pico-Satellites
Klaus Schilling
Satellites offer excellent opportunities to learn at a motivating example interdisciplinary system design and integration. In order to comply with the limited time frame of a study curriculum by Bob Twiggs (Stanford University) a sequence of hands-on projects of increasing complexity has been outlined and realized leading to implementation of a fully functional pico-satellite, called CubeSat. A CubeSat is a cube-shaped spacecraft with side length of 10 cm and a mass of 1 kg. The structure is standardized for launcher adaptation. The students usually design in about 1 academic year the spacecraft according to mission and payload requirements. The complete satellite life cycle from feasibility analyses to design, implementation, launch, in orbit operations, data collection and interpretation is to be covered by the student teams. In interdisciplinary teams, the students have to analyse the orbit properties and related implications on different satellite subsystems, such as on board data handling, power, telecommunications, attitude determination and control, thermal control, structure. In this context skills in mechanical, electrical and software engineering have to be applied in order to perform implementation and test of the satellite. In more detail the specific activities performed at the University Wrzburg will be addressed as example: 1. UWE-1, the University Wrzburg's Experimental satellite will be used to test adaptations of internet protocols to the space environment, characterized by significant signal propagation delays due to the large distances and much higher noise levels compared to terrestrial links.
2 1. The UWE-structural model equipped with highly efficient GaAs-solar cells 2. The ground control station at FH RavensburgWeingarten with Yagi and disc antenna
2. Establishment of a satellite ground control station, which is integrated into an infrastructure of world-wide internet linked stations. This presentation will address details of the educational approach and lessons learned in this satellite implementation effort. The specific experience from UWE-1 will be combined with the overall programmatic perspectives: As currently more than 40 international universities adopted that approach, a world-wide cooperation network has been set up in order to exchange experiences, procure satellite components and to organize shared launches.
Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universitt Wrzburg schi@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de
16
Attitude control of microsatellites

Aage Skullestad
This paper describes attitude control, i.e., 3-axes stabilisation and pointing, of a microsatellite. The intention of the original study was to find an inexpensive attitude control system with sufficient high accuracy allowing maritime surveillance from a low Earth orbit microsatellite. Firstly, the satellite was furnished with a gravity boom. Satellite stabilisation from a gravity boom alone yields inadequate stability, and magnetic coils mounted in the x, y and z facets of the satellite were added to improve attitude control. Different control strategies, such as LQ control, Fuzzy Logic control and H8 control, are presented. Satellite control using gravity gradient stabilisation and magnetic coils is inexpensive and allows low-power solutions. LQ control achieved attitude angular accuracies in the range 1 - 2 , using a first order dipole model for the geomagnetic field of the earth. Fuzzy logic control achieved attitude angular accuracies < 1 , but at the cost of slow satellite response. The angular accuracy of the above controllers were regarded as highly dependant of the sensor accuracy, sensor noise, internal satellite noise, solar pressure, inertia distribution of the satellite, available coil current, and thermal stability of the satellite and the gravity boom. An H8 controller with theoretically better robustness and disturbance rejection properties than the above controllers was proposed. Combining different actuators may in some situations be the best solution trading accuracy, power consumption and cost. Wheels used for attitude control will soon or later saturate, and the magnetic coils are shown to be handy for momentum dumping.
The required control torques can be reduced, but at the cost of less robustness and reduced disturbance rejection properties. Magnetic coils result in a slow control action. The magnetic coils were replaced by reaction wheels.
Actuators like reaction wheels, momentum wheels, thrusters or control moment gyros, that all have the potential of larger control torques than the magnetic coils, do not need the extra stability torque resulting from the furnished gravity boom. Thus the gravity boom becomes redundant. A LQ controller, using reaction wheels without gravity boom, gave fast and accurate attitude control.
Chapter 1 and 2 provide a brief description of actual sensors and actuators. Chapter 3 describes reference frames and attitude angle representation. Mathematical models necessary for building a complete mathematical model of the satellite, using different control actuators and control strategies, are presented in Chapter 4. Simulations are shown in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 shows moment dumping using magnetic coils.
The controller based on an H8 design results in a fast and accurate control system, with excellent disturbance rejection properties. A problem with this controller was the demand for high wheel torques.
Aage Skullestad Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace AS PO Box NO 3601 Kongsberg Norway Aage.skullestad@kongsberg.com
17
ESA's SMART-1
Mission to the Moon:
share the experience
Bernard H. Foing
SMART-1 is the first of Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology as part of ESA science programme "Cosmic Vision". Its objective is to demonstrate Solar Electric Primary Propulsion (SEP) for future Cornerstones (such as Bepi-Colombo) and to test new
Artist's impression of SMART-1
SMART-1's science payload, with a total mass of some 19 kg, features many innovative instruments and advanced technologies. A miniaturised high-resolution camera (AMIE) for lunar surface imaging, a near-infrared pointspectrometer (SIR) for lunar mineralogy investigation, and a very compact X-ray spectrometer (D-CIXS) with a new type of detector and micro-collimator which will provide fluorescence spectroscopy and imagery of the Moon's surface elemental composition. The payload also includes an experiment (KaTE) aimed at demonstrating deep-space telemetry and telecommand communications in the X and Ka-bands, a radio-science experiment (RSIS), a deep space optical link (Laser-Link Experiment), using the ESA Optical Ground station in Tenerife, and the validation of a system of autonomous navigation (OBAN) based on image processing. SMART-1 lunar science investigations include studies of the chemical composition of the Moon, of geophysical processes (volcanism, tectonics, cratering, erosion, deposition of ices and volatiles) for comparative planetology, and high resolution studies in preparation for future steps of lunar exploration. The mission could address several topics such as the accretional processes that led to the formation of rocky planets, and the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system.
technologies for spacecraft and instruments. The spacecraft has been launched on 27 sept. 2003, as an Ariane-5 auxiliary passenger. SMART-1 orbit pericenter is now outside the inner radiation belt. The current status of SMART-1 will be given at the symposium. After a 15 month cruise with primary SEP, the SMART-1 mission is to orbit the Moon for a nominal period of six months, with possible extension. The spacecraft will carry out a complete programme of scientific observations during the cruise and in lunar orbit.
Chief Scientist ESA RSSD & SMART-1 Project Scientist ESTEC/SCI-SR, Postbus 299, NL-2200 AG Noordwijk, Email: Bernard.Foing@esa.int SMART-1: http://sci.esa.int/smart-1/ ILEWG: http://sci.esa.int/ilewg/ Lunar Explorers Society: http://lunarexplorer.org
The SMART-1 observations will be coordinated with Japanese missions Lunar-A and SELENE. The scientific results of these missions should be integrated with previous lunar datasets (Apollo, Luna, Clementine, Prospector) to answer open questions about comparative planetology, the origin of the Earth -Moon system, the early evolution of life, the planetary environment and the existence of in-situ resources necessary to support human presence (e.g. water, oxygen). With their science and technology results, these missions can be considered as preparatory missions for future robotic and human exploration of the solar system.
18
Kongsberg Satellite Services Svalbard Satellite Station

Brre Pedersen
KONGSBERG SATELLITE SERVICES AS Postboks 6180 NO-9291Troms, Norway Office: Prestvannveien 38 E-mail: ksat@ksat.no boerrep@ksat.no Web: www.ksat.no
The Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard located at almost 80 N is ideally located for a ground station providing services related to data reception and control of polar orbiting satellites. A ground station at Svalbard provides efficient and cost efficient services because its possible to make contact with a satellite in polar orbit on all 14 of its orbits per day from one single ground station, whilst two or more stations would be required at lower latitudes. Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) and the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC) therefore have established the Svalbard Satellite Station (SvalSat).
The Svalbard Station
Established in 1997, Svalbard has currently 6 large apertures at the site. The extreme location of the station, together with modular, generic equipment that reduces the need for mission specific adaptation and special operational services are the main causes for the successful growth for KSAT. Today KSAT serves customers like ESA, NASA, IPO and Eumetsat. KSAT operates 3 of the antennae from the control center in Troms (TNOC). Through the interface at TNOC, the clients will be able to receive TT&C services and in
near-real time receive processed products or raw data. In January 2004, the new Gigabit fiber highway became operational. The fiber has increased the communication reliability by decades, giving the opportunity to send large amount of data in near-real time to customers both in Europe and the US. The new fiber enabled KSAT to connect the stations to the European GANT network. That network is the backbone for high-speed data transfer to EO centers and other research institutes in Europe. By exploring the benefits that the GANT network holds, the possible support from SvalSat to SSETIEXPRESS should be feasible.
19
AIV - Assembly, Integration and Verification ESEO
Imperial College
London
ESEO is progressing well and is well into the latter stages of its design phase (phase B), and entering the testing phase soon (phase C). Most of the AIV work will be concentrated in the testing phase, which has already commenced in a few sub-systems, i.e. propulsion and mechanism. Due to the proposed launch of SSETI Express, we will be able to learn from that experience and apply it either directly or indirectly to ESEO. Our past work has been sorting through paper work and familiarizing ourselves with the verification and hardware matrix as well as the various subsystems and their functions. The Hardware Matrix lists all the components each subsystem has and the models that they are to build, and the Verification Matrix lists the specific requirements that each component should meet. Each subsystem will have access to a copy of this matrix and we will be working closely together to ensure proper testing procedures and test reporting is carried out. Should the sub-system not be able to carry out testing in their respective universities, we shall endeavour to
Our major responsibility is the AIV part of the ESEO. Our main role is to coordinate the testing on singular components of ESEO and proceed on to perform testing of the subsystems and systems forming the satellite to verify that they meet the requirements set out in the ECSS-10 manual and comply to Ariane-5 standards.
arrange alternative facilities. Once this is done, the AIV team will combine the sub-systems to form the various systems and finally
integrating the satellite to do further testing to ensure ESEO will be functional in space and achieve the aims and objectives of ESEO.
Views of a few tests that all spacecrafts have to undergo before flight. For Express and ESEO most of these tests will be conducted at ESTEC
20
AOCS - Attitude and Orbit Control System ESEO
Instituto Superior Tecnico

Lisbon
The responsibility of the Lisbon team is to develop a complete AOCS system, consisting on the development from scratch of attitude sensors and actuators, as well as flight software for attitude and orbit control. The team was created in mid 2000 and relies on almost fifteen students from different courses, enabling a multidisciplinary work. It is represented as a student association named Lusastro.
Team Responsibilities The Attitude and Orbit Control System must be able to fulfill the ESEO requirements, namely manoeuvers and pointing requirements. The team has proposed and is now responsible for the development of attitude sensors, actuators and flight software, including attitude determination and control algorithms. The work is based on the development, integration and test of the required equipment and software, fully qualified for a space application. In detail, the AOCS consists of three different attitude sensors. It includes a sun sensor, an earth horizon sensor and a magnetometer. These sensors, with the appropriate resolution will permit the ESEO spacecraft attitude determination. The different types of sensors are necessary for the mission orbit range but also enable sensor data fusion, for better accuracy. All data from sensors are gathered by the flight software, with proper CAN protocol communication channels (nominal and redundant), and the control algorithms shall determine the necessary actions to be perfor-
med by the two types of attitude actuators available in the spacecraft. These are the attitude control thrusters and a one-axis reaction wheel to account for earth gravity gradient torques. Design Status The AOCS design is currently on the preliminary design phase, and it is previewed that the team enters the production phase in mid 2004. The AOCS architecture was designed to be simple and reliable, assuring that mission real-time restrictions are met. The several sensors designs is similar, consisting of the measurement module, with adjacent signal conditioning electronics, and controlled by an embedded microcontroller with integrated CAN protocol modules, thus having digital outputs connected to the ESEO nominal and redundant CAN buses. The reaction wheel design is based in the mission requirements, especially because its capability is intended to
damp the earth gravity gradient torques. It allows saving cold-gas fuel, extending the ESEO mission time as much as possible. The attitude determination and control algorithms, developed as part of the flight software pack, are being designed for maximum robustness. All algorithms are tested against the custom-made AOCS simulator, allowing a detailed knowledge of system response for the developed algorithms. Future Work Finish the design and enter production phase!
Earth Horizon Sensor
21
University of technology
Wroclaw
Communication ESEO, SSETI-Express
Participation in the SSETI Project of a team of Wroclaw University of Technology (WUT) is influenced by specific features of Central European country. In terms of technical infrastructure, our computer resources and internet access are generally good. We have advanced CAD software for electromagnetic and microwave uses. Our team primarily suffers from disadvantages which are related to poorer laboratory infrastructure and a lack of local industry involved in space technology. Wroclaw is a large university center with 130 thousands of students enrolled at all levels of academic studies. The Electrical Engineering and Information Technology is primary area of studies at four Engineering Departments of WUT. More than 10 thousands students are enrolled into these Faculties. Such big number means that a pool of talented students is significant.
they have not undergone airborne or space approval procedures). 2. We try to go far in reduction of structure weight and dimensions; thus lift-off costs are minimal. 3. A short duration of the mission (possible due to time-efficient accomplishment of the mission goals - must be regarded as one of the major factors maintaining overall costs low. comprises of the Ground and Space segments. The Ground segment includes an operation subsystem and the Ground Station.
1. To keep the costs low we concentrated on uses of unconventional solutions in the SSETI micro-satellites, which rely on a vast use of commercially available devices featuring excellent performance (even though
The SSETI-Express will use only beacon transmitter which we will develop (2400 MHz band). A fully operational S-band communication subsystem will operate at the follow up micro-satellite, ESEO. The communication system
One of four our main areas of research are Low Gain Antennas (LGA) for T&C applications. The antennas are designed and manufactured in ultra low weight technology. The model of our planar LGA antenna is shown in Figure 1. The main features of the antenna are a lightweight structure and a high degree of integration of antenna elements and feeding circuits (Circular Polarization). To analyze the properties of antennas placed onboard the micro-satellite a numerical analysis based on the Methods of Moments is used. The studies aim at optimization of antennas placement on the micro-satellites SSETIExpress and ESEO.
1. Model of the LGA fed with a slot coupled line (f0 = 2.425 GHz)
22 STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference
Configurations - ESEO
Escuela Superior de Ingegnieros

Bilbao
Structure The first task of Configurations team was to create a light, low cost structure that verified all the requirements imposed by the ESA's and Ariane5 standars. In order to make this possible, we had to investigate the possibilities of the different construction materials, in order to develop a structure that satisfied our needs. At this moment, we have reached the point of freezing the structure's design and start the production and testing process. This will include the use of a complete shaking system for a complete frequency analysis.
Satellite's configuration The second part of our work relies on the configuration of the satellite's subsystems. There are a lot of restrictions and factors to take care of, as thermal distribution, radiation, and mass of the components, the inertia matrix or the space distribution of the subsystems. This means that we have to be in contact with all the groups, as a change in one of the subsystems usually affects the rest of the configuration.
The responsibility of the CONF team of Bilbao is divided between two vital parts of the satellite, the configuration of the subsystems and the design of the structure. Since 2000 many designs and structures have been created, due to the continuous evolution of the satellite, with the entrance and exit of some subsystems.
2 1. Structure model 2. Satellite's Configuration
23
s
Electrical Power Sub-systems ESEO, SSETI Express
e
Even the batteries are completely modular since the number of cell series is chosen according the power budget, being changed only the housing of the pack. A single six cell serie Li-ion battery has been adopted as a single module guaranteeing capacity up to 90Wh and 5A as peak current. Modules can simply be parallel connected since they are managed by the same electronics. Solar panels shall be based upon Triple Junction cell technology allowing, with an efficiency of almost 23 %, either to obtain high value of power (up to 180 W with 2 sun-tracking solar panels) if required or to reduce the array dimensions (600x250 mm2) with respect to the satellite when a low budget is needed. Power Management The main difference in the power management onboard the two satellites (ESEO and SSETI Express) is due basically on the orbit typology and mission requirements. Since the ESEO mission is based upon an almost equatorial GTO and the satellite is 3 axis stabilised, the choice of sun-tracking solar panels ensure a slightly constant power level to the system leaving to the batteries the task of supplying the onboard sub-systems during the eclipses and power peak requests. SSETI Express is a satellite mostly based on simplicity of design and it flies on a SSO simply basing its attitude upon Earth magnetic field lines. For this reason the main purpose of the body mounted solar panels is recharging the battery as fast as possible, leaving it the function of feeding the system until the 85 % of the DOD including a safety margin for the EPS control unit: this device has the purpose, in this case, of switching off all the systems until the battery are completely recharged.
i
The EPS developed by Universit degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", and Seconda universit degli Studi di Napoli within the SSETI project (for ESEO and SSETI Express ) although fundamental for the survival of the missions has been designed according experimental and new technological choices. For this reason the telemetry data referring the on-orbit performances shall contribute to better understand the consequences of the use of Li-ion battery cells, Triple junction solar cells and COTS (commercial off the shelf) electronic components in the space applications.
Universit degli Studi "Federico II" Napoli
Subsystem design Taking into account that SSETI shall promote multiple missions a modular philosophy design has been considered to develop all parts of the EPS. The electronics for the management of the power onboard is in fact the same for both ESEO and SSETI Express mission and only minor changes to the software of the PIC controller shall be adopted to satisfy the different management needs of the two satellites. Using COTS components for the electronics ensures highly lower costs and higher efficiencies although the use of them in the radiation environment shall be evaluated carefully.
Battery pack-CATIA drawing
24
t
Harness - ESEO
Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya

Barcelona
Work Distribution The work has been distributed into two sets, therefore creating two smaller teams: the data and power team, each with its important task. The groups are composed of three and two members respectively.
The Harness team has received the task of cable management for the ESEO mission, this, includes both data and power wiring. After the creation of the team in October 2003, the designing phase started in January 2004.
25-pin gold-covered connector
Work Two conceptual sketches have been created by the teams, one for power and one for data. These visuals must be updated, detailed and errors should be corrected for the successful continuation of the working process. The following stage will be composed of learning and researching about the environments that ESEO will have to work under. These environments are in space and inside Ariane 5. Van Allen Belts will have to be considered in depth, though they are a minor part of the course they are greater in radiation. Due to the vibrations caused by take off, this too will need to be studied in depth.
Hardware Hardware must be researched for the conditions mentioned previously. It is already known to the teams that the majority of the connectors will be covered in gold in order to prevent damage from gases. The teams were greatly helped by Mr. Eric Trottemant, from ESA Education Office. The data team learned how to avoid using heavy and voluminous connectors by manually gluing the pins or by using a cap.
25
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Lausanne
Solar Array Mechanism The work done so far on the SPDPM can be divided into three major development steps. The first one has been the design and construction of a simple breadboard model of the deployment mechanism, allowing the team, having initially no experience in mechanism design, to demonstrate the feasibility of a simple spring loaded mechanism and to identify critical design points.In a second approach, much work has been done to identify the many requirements imposed on the mechanism in order to assure its correct functioning in the environment of outer space. Currently the whole system is being revised and optimized based on the knowledge gained during the mechanism specification phase, in particular the pointing mechanism, using a brushless DC motor is being added and fitted within the structure of the ESEO spacecraft. to drive two brushless DC motors and four pyro-technical devices. A first breadboard model and an engineering qualification model of the electronics have been built in collaboration with the Integrated Actuators Laboratory at EPFL, providing the team the with expertise of DC brushless motor drive design and the infrastructures necessary to build and test the electronics. Currently software is being developed and a simulator to verify the correct functional operation of the device in a virtual space environment.
Mechanisms - ESEO
Major responsibility of the SSETI chapter in Lausanne is the design of a Solar Panel Deployment and Pointing Mechanism (SPDPM) for the ESEO mission. The design work has begun in the year 2001 and has concluded so far in the development of a breadboard of the deployment mechanism and an electronic controller capable of driving and deploying two solar arrays.
Future Work The team's future work will consist of the conclusion of the mechanism design and the qualification of the developed system.
The controller provides functionality to drive two solar arrays and to activate the pyro release system.
Mechanism controller The subsystem developed in house, is based on two commercial off-the-shelf digital signal processors providing cold redundancy to the system. An on-chip CAN controller provides the data interface to the data handling system. The controller contains a driver circuit capable
The double hinged system will be capable of supporting solar panel having a size of 50 x 60 cm and a mass of approximately 1.5 kg.
26
Mission Analysis - ESEO, SSETI Express
University of Zaragoza
Zaragoza
Mission Analysis work Since October 2000, the Mission Analysis group has analysed the orbital state of the spacecraft, as well as its perturbations and evolution, selecting and optimizing the manoeuvres, interacting with the different subsystem developing studies about ground and communication coverage, eclipses, environment, The orbit for ESEO mission will be a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). However, the injection parameters and the launch date are not already defined by Arianespace. Therefore, diverse cases of insertion have been analyzed. One objective of ESEO is perform manoeuvres to suffer a natural deorbit, so that the spacecraft will be burned down in the atmosphere in the next 5 years. Different Manoeuvres Plans have been elaborated taking into account perturbations and the propulsion and
ground segment constrains. Once the insertion parameters are provided, it will be possible to select the best manoeuvre strategy. This strategy is directed to get the burned before five years. However, the study of the time in which the natural de-orbit is fulfilled is in general very complex since it depends on the atmospheric drag, solar activity and other perturbations. On the other hand, software is also being developed. The ESEO Mission Analysis Program (EMAP), specific for the Sseti project, provides results adjusted to the ESEO mission in all Mission Analysis tasks. The results are contrasted with other industrial programs like IMAT, STK,... The EMAP code is C, and it can be integrated in EuroSim to simulate the orbital state of the satellite.
Future Work The Mission Analysis future work consists on completing the EMAP software, as well as obtaining more accurate results when other subsystems concretise definitively their data.
This figure comes from the EMAP software developed by Mission Analysis
The Mission Analysis team in the SSETI project is responsible for the detailed analysis of the orbital evolution, the state of the spacecraft in its orbit, the optimization of the manoeuvres and the de-orbit process. Since October 2000, this group has been working with the support of the Space Mechanical Group of the University of Zaragoza.
27
Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) ESEO
Ume University
Kiruna
Objectives The objective of the narrow angle camera payload is to make pictures that will show places on earth in order to make the public more interested in space activities. The largest area covered in one picture will be as large as the size of Europe.
scratch by the team. The layout of the construction is showed in the picture were it can be seen that the camera will also have a memory, this memory is to be large enough to store at least one picture, in case the picture can't be transmitted at once.
Current Status The NAC is currently in phase B, but a prototype camera has been built and is about to be tested on a stratosphere balloon were it will reach space and hopefully take pictures of it.
Camera facts The pictures will be acquired by an imaging sensor chip called STAR 1000. STAR 1000 use CMOS APS technology instead of the more common CCD technology, this simplifies the construction compared to an equivalent CCD construction and reduces the cost. The sensor chip has 1024x1024 pixels, which will take greyscale pictures with 10 bit sensitivity. Since this is a narrow angle camera the field of view is set to no larger than 8.4 by the special made lens. The camera will not be an "off the shelf" product, instead it will be developed and constructed from
Block diagram for the camera.
We are a team from Sweden that are working on the narrow angle camera. The team consists of seven persons, all of us space engineering students at the department for space physics in Kiruna at Ume University in Sweden. Our team has been with SSETI since the end of 2002.
28
Mission Operations Concepts ESEO, SSETI - Express
University of Technology
Warsaw
Launch Phase The satellite is launched with an Ariane 5. The launch phase ends when separation from ASAP (Ariane5 Structure for Auxiliary Payload) is achieved. LEOP (launch early operation phase) Critical during LEOP will be the acquisition of the satellite. Once this has been achieved satellite operators can start perform satellite stabilisation, instrument test and calibration preparing ESEO for regular payload operations. The LEOP phase begins when the satellite is separated from the ASAP. The phase ends once instruments are calibrated and are working nominally. GTO (geostationary transfer orbitphase) During this phase nominal satellite operations are performed they include tasks such as radiation measurement, when the spacecraft crosses the Van Allen belts, or pictures of Earth and the Moon. Manoeuvre Phase Once objectives not including the orbital control system have been fulfilled a manoeuvre phase is started during which the satellites orbit is changed to a 12 hour orbit. The achievement of the manoeuvre phase will conclude regular SSETI operations. Extended Phase If the vital systems of the spacecraft are still in functional state after the end of the mission an extension might be decided. The extended phase allows for further experiments with the spacecraft's payload. Objectives, still to be defined, could include an increase of satellite autonomy or an amelioration of the pointing precision.
The mission operations concept, developed during the satellites design phase, describes how the mission objectives are carried out. The determination of mission phases, the identification of the operations supporting architecture and its performance requirements represent steps to be taken during mission preparation. Hereafter the mission phases for the ESEO spacecraft will be presented.
29
Stuttgart University
The SSETI chapter in Stuttgart is assigned to the design and development of propulsion systems for the upcoming SSETI missions. Today about 30 students of Aerospace Engineering are actively involved in the design, construction and verification process. The current work focuses on a cold-gas propulsion unit for the ESEO satellite using gaseous nitrogen as propellant and capable of providing three-axis attitude control (with AOCS) as well as orbit manoeuvres and de-orbit.
Propulsion - ESEO, SSETI Express
Stuttgard
Propulsion Design The design work in Stuttgart began in 2000 with trade studies of different propulsion systems and their arrangements. Based on functionality, simplicity and feasibility the team decided on a cold-gas unit, which can be developed, assembled and tested by the students themselves while it fulfils all the requirements to achieve the ESEO mission. The modular design of the system includes three propulsive elements which allows re-usability of the system or system elements in future SSETI missions: 1. Attitude Control System (ACS), providing active attitude control throughout the mission phase. 2. Orbit Control System (OCS), the main thruster used for orbit changes and de-orbit. 3. Reaction Control System (RCS), compensating thrust vector misalignment and deviation torques, also redundancy system to ACS.
of the components will then be done by the propulsion team. This includes light, carbon fibre-reinforced oxygen tanks used by fire-fighters and miniature valves from medical applications. Space-qualified hardware is only used for the master valve and the fill/drain valves due to safety reasons. The system includes five high pressure tanks, 14 valves, 9 thruster nozzles, three pressure regulators and four pressure transducers. The different nozzles and the tubing are designed by the propulsion team. An additional feature of the proposed system is the thrust vector control (TVC) unit which will allow a reorientation of the OCS thrust vector in order to minimize perturbation torques.
ACS/RCS Thrust Test Model First test model of the ACS/RCS cluster with two thrusters (up) and assembly inside the test stand at the Universitt Stuttgart (down).
30
Propulsion Components Low cost COTS hardware from nonspace applications are used where possible to minimize the system cost, the necessary testing and verification
Future Work First stationary thrust tests of the ACS and RCS thrust levels have been performed and yielded the expected results. In the upcoming months an extensive test and verification plan will be realised in order to qualify all components and to verify their function within the system.
OBDH Node / RadFET - ESEO
University of Technology
Lule
against radiation effects. The CAN bus was originally developed for the automotive industry, but it has in recent years also been used in space applications such as the Swedish built SMART1. A dual CAN bus is used to increase redundancy and to avoid an error known as "babbling idiot", where a faulty node renders the bus useless by transmitting all the time. The controller cards of each node are cold redundant (only one of the two is powered at any given time), and both cards can communicate on both CAN buses. The active controller is chosen through power switching. To protect the controller cards and to reduce the number of components each node has one interface card, which contains input buffers and control circuitry for valves and actuators (these use a higher voltage than the controller cards). RadFET The RadFET payload will measure the total ionising dose (TID) that the satellite is subjected to. This is important to know when evaluating the performance of other electronics on board since radiation breaks down the electronic components.
Node design overview
OBDH Node The OBDH Nodes started out as distributed parts of the satellites main computer to take care of AD conversion as close to the sensors as possible. Since then they have evolved into a separate subsystem. The nodes handle data collection for the Thermal, Power and RadFET subsystems. They also control the valves and actuators of the Propulsion system as well as the heater for Thermal. Each node consists of three cards: Two cold redundant controller cards and a common interface card. Due to the restricted budget all electronics are commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. Two different microcontrollers (one on each controller card) are used to increase redundancy and to test their performance in space for future projects. The nodes also have built in circuitry to protect
RadFET's are a special type of field effect transistor developed by the Irish research institute NMRC for use as radiation sensors, and they are often used in space applications. The 6 RadFET sensors on ESEO will be highly integrated in the OBDH Node design.
Future Work The group is right now working to finish the electronics design and move on to qualification and manufacture of the flight model.
The Lule team has been a part of SSETI since 2001 and is responsible for the RadFET payload and the three OBDH (On-Board Data Handling) Nodes used to interface other subsystems to the satellites internal communication system, a redundant dual CAN bus.
31
University of Pisa
Pisa
The responsibility of RISK team within ESEO project is developing and applying an extensive Risk Management policy during all phases of the project, in order to provide an aid in designing and decision-making to the best extent possible, both to individual teams and to the project as a whole. Our work began in October 2000, and it has brought us through the development of a Risk Management plan and the implementation of an extensive Risk Assessment and Analysis phase.
Risk Management Our Risk Management plan has been developed in compliance with ESA standards, with particular attention to what is stated and required by ECSSM-00-03A. Of course, ESA standards and requirements had to be tailored for ESEO project, in order to satisfy particular needs regarding the peculiar features of the project and of the structure of teams. Risk Assessment During all these years of work, an extensive Risk Assessment phase has been implemented, in order to identify, describe and store as more risk scenarios as possible. This work has been brought on with the precious help of all SSETI teams (which provided data and ideas for many scenarios), ESA experts (who helped us with their opinions) and RISK team own expert, Mr. Luca Paita (who provided us the expertise and knowhow about what really Risk Management is, along with thousands of useful suggestions). The result of Risk Assessment work is a database, in which all risk scenarios assessed so far are saved for the purposes of storage, analysis and rating; those data are of course not to be considered definitive, as Risk Assessment is supposed to be continued during all phases of the project. Risk Analysis In order to improve Risk Analysis work and data communication between RISK team and the relevant team(s), we have developed a Risk Register, following the templates published in ECSS-M-00-03A appendix and given us by our expert, Mr. Paita. Each assessed scenario is stored in a register, and all its field are filled in order to provide an immediate and effective overlook upon characteristics and figures regarding a scenario. Risk Analysis data are used to find solutions and to help subsystems' decisions, in order to reduce severity of consequences and likelihood of occurance of each scenario, and finally discuss and approve their acceptance. Risk Communication Being one of the most critical aspects of Risk Management, in ESEO project Risk Communication is made even more crucial by the fact that SSETI teams are spread all over Europe. Anyway, communication between RISK team and ESEO teams and management is the liveliest, thanks to the great number of communications media adoptable (newsgroups, chat sessions, email, teleconference) and to the very important occasion of workshops. All the relevant data from RISK team are of course at hand of each member of ESEO teams and management, as RISK team dedicated folder on SSETI ftp is constantly updated, and consultable by each SSETI member. Future work The perspective of work for RISK team is going on in applying Risk Management Plan during each phase of ESEO project, until its very completion. In this work, all the steps of Risk Management plan presented here will be implemented more and more deeply and finely, as long as system complexity increases, together with our comprehension of it. In particular, much emphasis will be put into bringing Risk Assessment phase to a deeper level of complexity, analysing risk scenarios to find better and more effective solution to them, and implementing those solution in order to obtain acceptance and closure for a bigger and bigger number of scenarios.
Risk Management - ESEO
32
t
Simulations - ESEO
Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronuticos Madrid

Simulation team is responsible of the coordination, review and rectification, and has to join all the simulations of the subsystems of the micro satellite in an only simulation. Eight students are members of this team. We study in the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid (UPM), one telecommunications engineering and the rest aeronautical engineering. We joined this project at the end of the year 2002.
As the "real life" projects, ESEO must be checked before it is finished. The difference between a space project and other industrial areas is that a real test cannot be made because of the cost of each launch. Therefore the simulation is essential in our project. If we want to know how good our design is, we need to check how each subsystem will run and whether they will work together. The creation of a virtual environment is very useful to solve design problems without building the real subsystem. For all of these reasons, the simulation is one of the most important tools in this project. Launching ESEO without making simulations is like taking a plane that you do not know whether it will fly or not. For the whole simulation of the satellite we plan to use a program called Eurosim which is published by Dutch Space. Eurosim is primary a real-time controller; its task is to execute a list of periodical tasks (it holds the list in what it calls the "Schedule"), tasks that are coded in C or Fortran in subprograms that
represent every subsystem of a satellite (or other hardware). One of the advantages is that Eurosim cares of all the timing and synchronisation assuring that the simulation runs in real-time without having to code all that routines in the code of simulation. It also offers a high modularization of the simulations making possible that different groups work in different parts and later assembly all in one simulator. And last but no less important, it is used in the ESA, so we had access to some examples to learn how to use it in a real environment. Our work until now has consisted of asking the other teams about their simulation. We have prepared a "how to simulate" guideline in order to prevent possible incompatibilities with Eurosim software. This guideline should be followed by all groups to avoid language problems (the use of different names for the same variable, type of the shared variables). We are helping teams
with their simulation, how to start, what is needed to be simulated Concerning our main future objectives, they are basically three: 1. Continue helping other teams with their subsystems simulation. Although all teams have to simulate their own subsystem some of them haven't got enough time, or they may find some troubles we try to solve. 2. Integrate all subsystems simulations using Eurosim. As told before, we are using Eurosim to integrate all subsystems simulations in one. 3. Make the ESEO simulation. When we have all subsystems in Eurosim, we can make the ESEO simulation.
Eurosim
33
Major responsibility of the SSETI chapter in Porto, Portugal is the verification of the satellite's structural design through FE analysis. The team joined SSETI in 2001 and, together with Configurations Team in Bilbao, has produced a number of models that follow the design iteration process. For SSETI Express, this team has accumulated the task of developing the satellite's configuration, too.
Structures-Calculations ESEO, SSETI Express
Faculty of Engineering
Porto
The Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal was officially accepted as member of SSETI in April 2001. The subsystem assigned to the Porto team was structures/calculations. This means the team was responsible for developing finite element models as required by
2 1. Latest FE model 2. Inserts' pull-out test
the program in order to verify stiffness requirements, compute loads and stresses. This should be done in close cooperation with the structural design and configurations team located in Bilbao, Spain. The definition of subsystem requirements was the first technical task that had to be performed. Here the team was helped by ESA published standards called European Cooperation for Space Standardisation (ECSS). The next technical task for the Porto team was the development of finite element models of the satellite to asses its natural frequencies. The requirements document established a minimum stiffness that had to be verified by analysis and tests. The basis for the work was the configuration model which was done by the Spanish team using CATIA. Upon that, a mesh was developed using FEMAP 8.0 as pre-processor and ABAQUS 6.3 as processor. During the development phases, a lot of different finite element (FE) models were developed. They are all based on shell/composite, beam, rigid and contact elements. Also, a trade study was performed to evaluate the efficiency of using shell/composite elements to simulate the behaviour of sandwich panels that the primary structure is made of. The use of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) as the honeycomb face sheets was also considered and compared versus traditional aluminium skins. Aluminium skins were ultima-
tely chosen because of the qualification needed to fly CFRP panels. More recently, the issue of interfaces between structure and subsystems' components rose. The connections have to be made using potted inserts that transfer loads from the components to the honeycomb facing sheets. The use of polymeric inserts instead of typical metallic inserts was considered. The behaviour and design of metallic inserts is well established and documented in ESA's Insert Design Handbook (IDH). In order to provide insight about the behaviour of polymeric inserts, it was recommended by the review board to conduct a short test campaign. Determination of the inserts' pull-out strength and failure modes of the joint under traction was the goal.
Current and future activities Currently, work on ESEO is ongoing with new and improved models being developed. These provide better results and will be confronted with experimental results later in the academic year. A new challenge that has come out recently is the SSETI Express initiative. The team from Porto has the added responsibility of the configurations subsystem for SSETI Express. This will, in principle, decrease design time as both design and analysis teams are in the same place.
34
Lierni Arana
System engineering,
what is it and why do we need it?
ESA-ESTEC
A spacecraft is divided into a set of functional elements or subsystems. A spacecraft itself however is only part of the whole scenario. A ground system is needed to communicate with the spacecraft and a launcher to launch it into space. The system engineering team needs to ensure that the user requirements will be fulfilled and the system will work as a unit once it is in orbit. The system engineering team must balance many conflicting requirements in order to propose a solution. These requirements may include cost, mass, reliability or any other combination of competing requirements.
System engineering focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in the development cycle, documenting requirements, then proceeding with design synthesis and system validation while considering the complete problem:
Artists impression for ESEO
Operations Performance Test Manufacturing Cost & Schedule Training & Support Disposal System engineering monitors the progress of the project by participating in technical reviews, performing risk management, data management as well as configuration, verification, interface management and tests. The design decisions are based on studies, trade-offs and analyses, models, simulations and development activities. System Engineering joins all the different disciplines into a team endeavour, which effectively becomes an
ordered and controlled development process from concept to development and operation.
System engineering together with management act as the big brother of the project making sure that when the time arrives for placing all pieces together, they will all fit together with the minimum of problems and the final system will perform as required by the customer.
System Engineering is an art where the overall tasks and possible risks need controlling so that at the end of the project, the customer is pleased with the working product. It involves a close control of all technical aspects of the system and decision making based on trade offs, analysis and models.
35
Attitude Determination and Control System SSETI Express The ADCS group at Aalborg University is responsible for the design and construction of the SSETI Express Attitude Control and Determination System. The design chosen includes a stabilisation and attitude detection scheme using passive magnets, sun sensors and magnetometers.
Aalborg University
Aalborg
poral sensor fusion techniques. Data will be processed both forwards and backwards in time in order to gain as much information as possible from the data. A performance comparison between the Extended Kalman Filter and the Unscented Kalman Filter will be performed as academic work. Following successful commissioning of the satellite it is hoped that it will be possible to perform advanced open-loop manoeuvres in order to support the camera mission further, and to explore the interesting relationship between the off-line model and the real spacecraft behaviour. As of the 20th of February the system has been specified and orders on main hardware components have been placed. Next step is the detailed design and analysis of the control part of the system, which then is to be followed by the same process for the determination part.
the system is not allowed to infer any major configuration changes to the already set baseline configuration. The approach in terms of control is to use passive magnets to make the satellite track the ambient Earth field and the approach thus ensures that the camera payload and antennas will be roughly Nadir pointing in the northern hemisphere. However, in order to reach this state of attitude evolution then the excess energy of satellite must be dissipated. To this end two electro-magnetic coils are used mounted perpendicular to the permanent field (and each other). Essentially the scheme only stabilizes two axes, and the rotation around the longitudinal axis remains uncontrolled. The coils are designed to provide a current path if the system is not powered and will thus work as an Eddy-current damper, and thus the attitude control will be effective even if the Power Control Unit fails. The attitude determination system is basically needed to evaluate the propulsion payload. The primary sensor is a three-axis magnetometer supplemented with data from experimental sun-sensors. All sensor data is stored on-board the satellite and then downlinked for off-line analysis. This analysis is performed using continuous filtering and tem-
Attitude Control and Determination on a Budget During the SSETI-Express feasibility discussion in December 2003 it was found that no near-flight-ready Attitude Control and Determination System (ACDS) existed that could be adopted for the Express mission. Therefore a specific ACDS groups was formed to supply the mission with such a system. The challenge in this endeavour is first and foremost to complete the design and construction within a schedule budget of less than six months. A normal micro-satellite usually spends about ten man years on the same task. Further, the solution is also constrained severely by the need to have minimum impact on the other space-craft budgets, specifically the power budget and onboard computation budget. Finally,
36
On-board computer and camera SSETI Express
Aalborg University
Aalborg
The On-board Computer It is a major time consuming task designing a custom On Board Computer (OBC) every time a small satellite, like the Cubesat or SSETIexpress, is developed. To ease the burden of constructing such satellites, a flexible standard computer platform is designed which can be applied to most micro-satellites. The rationale is to minimise the problems during integration of the parts in a satellite, thus lowering the overall construction time while boosting operation reliability. This is achieved by developing a generic framework that strictly defines the communication interfaces between onboard subsystems. The result of the research is a framework consisting of an OBC subsystem and a protocol description for further development of the new AAUSAT-II satellite. A solution for the internal subsystem communication was developed and dubbed INSANE - short for INternal Satellite Area NEtwork. A protocol specification for INSANE was created for use by future subsystem developers. INSANE is a network concept that provides a generic communication interface to any subsystem regardless of the residence of the subsystem. Specifically, software applications
on the OBC use the same API (Application Programmers Interface) for communication as an application residing on an external micro controller does, which adds a layer of abstraction to the developers of subsystems. In order to fit the OBC for SSETIexpress an interface card is supplied to adapt a variety of interfaces to INSANE, thus making the OBC comply with even the most intricate interfaces.
Since the year 2001, students at Aalborg University have been involved in designing and building small satellites. Already, one Cubesat has been successfully launched into orbit and the next generation Cubesat, AAUSAT-II, is now being developed to serve as a framework for future Cubesats at Aalborg University. The versatility of this framework allows the On Board Computer of AAUSAT-II to be implemented into other satellites including ESA's SSETI-express, further the team will provide the camera for this mission.
Flying a camera the Express way The SSETI-Express camera group was formed as a response to the starting discussion about an Express mission. The idea is to fly the AAUcubesat flight spare camera unit. The AAU-cubesat was launched in June 2003, but unfortunately various platform problems made it impossible to operate the camera that was the main payload. The SSETI-Express was therefore a perfect opportunity to give this student built payload another chance, and it was included in
the mission as the tertiary payload. The camera is based around a Kodak CMOS image sensor that provides a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels in 24bit colors. The lens systems for the camera has been custom built for this project and it will provide an on ground resolution of approximately 150x120 meter from a 900~km orbit. On the SSETI-Express the camera will be mounted on the top-plate of the satellite and will therefore, due to the primitive attitude control system on SSETI-Express, only be able to take pictures of the Earth when the satellite is at northern latitudes. However, it will also be interesting to take pictures when the satellite points out in space - these pictures can for example be used to evaluate the feasibility of using the camera system as a star tracker on future missions.
37
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Narvik University College (HiN) Trondheim, Narvik
Attitude Determination and Control System - ESMO
This SSETI chapter is based in Trondheim and Narvik in Norway. It is responsible for the Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) for the European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO). This work starts with a case study of the European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO), in order to investigate to what extent the ADCS can be reused for the ESMO. Focus will also be on stability analysis of the ADCS.
Case study of ESEO The ESMO ADCS team started their work in January 2004, as the first ESMO team. More ESMO teams will be recruited for fall 2004. This spring, the team is working on a case study of ESEO. The main objectives are mathematical modeling of the satellite and its actuators (thrusters and reaction wheel), stability analysis, orbital maneuvering and attitude control. The latter includes several control schemes, including linear and nonlinear control, as well as model predictive control (i.e. design of control laws to minimize power and fuel consumption). Finally, the closedloop system will be extensively simulated in MATLAB and Simulink.
Some of this work has already been completed by the ESEO AOCS team. This way, the ESMO ADCS team can learn from them, and in return help them in areas where the ESEO AOCS team may have problems.
Future work When the case study is finished, the ESMO ADCS team will start to work on the ADCS for ESMO.
The Moon
38
Infrastructures Design for a Distributed Satellite Design Project

Jrg Schaefer, University of Stuttgart Lars Mehnen, University of Technology Vienna The student satellite design project 'SSETI' is based on distributed work that is coordinated over the Internet. Therefore, the infrastructures discipline of SSETI has the main objective to provide the necessary services, clients and interfaces to facilitate the desired design strategy. After starting from scratch the needs and requirements were identified through the implementation and application of a prototype called 'the Workshop-Web' (WSW).
native services. In addition, the safety, permissions and administration management shall be re-structured to minimize the number of accounts needed per team. Furthermore, the separation between content and formatting should be improved to allow a dynamic styling of the tools by the SSETI PR Team. Acknowledgments The WSW development was started in the beginning of the year 2000 by Ed C. Chester and was supported by comments and evaluation by Eric Trottemant.
Phase 0 : Design In early 2000 the SSET Initiative was presented through a web site (see Fig. 1) which was located on the web-server of the ESA Outreach Office at the ESA/ESTEC. Besides static HTML pages describing SSETI and the mission, the chance for discussions was offered by linking to an dedicated bulletin board system. During the mission definition phase the major needs for the infrastructure were identified and implemented in prototypes. Some trade-offs were discussed 'on-the-fly' and several implementation decisions had to be revised or were overruled by the users' acceptance. Phase A/B : Prototype The prototype that was implemented to fulfill the requirements consists of a set of web-pages (WWW) and scripts and a set of native Internet services. For the web-scripts the "PHP Hypertext Processor" (PHP) is utilized. The user interaction is performed over the well-known WorldWide-Web (WWW) (see Fig.2). The following list shows the major requirements and their implementation components that turned out to be powerful and important for the
design infrastructure: 1.Near real-time communication (delay in range of seconds): implemented through a dedicated "Internet Relay Chat" (IRC) system. 2.Low-delay communication (delay in range of minutes/hours): implemented through a dedicated Ultimate Bulletin Board (UBB) system. 3.Document / data exchange (random access): implemented through a dedicated File Transfer server (FTP). 4.Member / team data storage: implemented through a MySQL database accessible through web-scripts. 5.Easy and continuous access: implemented through the registration of the Internet domain 'sseti.net' and the installation of dedicated servers for SSETI. Phase C : Outlook One of the changes compared to the initial concept is the changeover from the UBB to a dedicated Internet Network News (INN) system due to administration and styling problems with the UBB. The redundancy and backup strategy should be improved by the planned implementation of two synchronized servers and WWW front-ends for the
2 1. first SSETI Web-Pagethe 2. Workshop-Web Prototype (WSW1)
39
Universti Paris XI Facult Jean Monnet

Paris
SSETI Legal Team
The current legal team is formed of two members, Guilhem Brouard and Julien Mariez, students in the Master (D.E.S.S.) of Space and Telecommunications Law, a most unique formation in Europe, sponsored by ESA for 2003-2004, at the legal department (Facult Jean Monnet) of the University Paris XI. They are also members of IDEST (Institute of Space and Telecommunications Law), an international law research centre. The former members were Delphine Gomes de Sousa and Sylvie Constante, former students (2002-2003) of the master, and still members of IDEST. During their term, the legal team drafted the statutes of the SSETI Association, the first agreements with ESA and worked on the issues of intellectual and industrial property rights. Currently it is going on with this work and draft the general agreement with ESA for Express and ESEO. The Legal Team is as well in charge of the common procedures related to the construction, launch, and operation of SSETI satellites, such as the frequencies summons at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the satellite registration at the United Nations.
The team endorsing professor, M. Philippe Achilleas, is the founder and the director of both the master and IDEST. As a consequence the legal team benefits of the infrastructure and resources provided by the institute. The team has its seat in Sceaux, at the Facult Jean Monnet, in a favourable environment for space lawyers with the proximity of major national (CNES) and European (ESA) institutions as well as important companies (Alcatel Space, Astrium, and EADS...).
40
Public relations
Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera

Milano
SSETI Public Relations Team "Communicate a project that join technological research with the passion of a network of european universities and students, supported by an institution caring on formation: respectively SSETI and ESA". This is one of the main PR Team objectives. The team is made up of students from the "Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera" in Milan. The students, who are assisted by university professors, have all the necessary skills to manage all communication aspects of the SSETI project. Main Goals Objectives to be reached are focused in a communication plan that is mainly targeted on: primary schools, universities, institutions and industries. The need to speak to a large and educationally differing audience requires different languages/approa-
ches for every target: cartoon style for primary formation, hi-tech for technical schools, a direct language for the university, concrete and realistic for economic and research institution. Therefore, our communication instruments should be different: the institutional internet site will become didactic format and act as a learning whilst playing situation, an informative point for university students and a resource for press and sponsors. We are producing editorial instruments such as a general brochure, a school presentation pack, a welcome kit and posters. Objectives that are still being planned will include a video documentary and an advertising spot. Considering achieved goals, there is sure the production of all the STEC 2004 materials. Instruments and methodologies The capability to plan a trajectory to be supported with our resources is a reality for our work, thanks to our communication plan that underlines methods and objectives. The need to discuss and share it should join the capability to get a professional and realistic project that matches SSETI objectives optimizing team members' capacity. In particular, the achievement of our objectives is closely connected to five single wor-
king phases: ideas, planning, review, realization and distribution. These phases correspond to the needs to offer professional materials with an important visual component, to plan times and resources for every aspect of the production, to grow for better supporting the SSETI project, to be good listeners to SSETI members, to be real spokespersons and to be able to use all the available media for differentiating and optimising communication.
The growing of each team member is connected to the possibility to be involved in a stable and original project like the SSETI. Personal capacity, motivation and resources are the elements required by each individual involved to ensure the success of this project: Let's launch the dream.
2 1. Graphic project for communication in schools 2. Sseti website ( www.sseti.net )
41
The Dobson Space Telescope

Technical University of Berlin The DOBSON SPACE TELESCOPE Project (DST) at the Technical University of Berlin (TU-Berlin) believes that the challenging task for micro-sat remote sensing is to overcome the lack of an appropriate instrument. In order to break the limits for optical payloads on small satellites the DST team develops an optical telescope with deployable structures. The telescope is compressed during launch and it will unfold after being deployed in orbit.
Introduction The DOBSON SPACE TELESCOPE Projects is a student initiative at the TU-Berlin. It is our aim to develop foldable optics for micro satellite application. The Idea is to overcome the volume limits of hitchhiker payloads by disassembling the telescope during transport and reassemble it for observation. This technology will enable university satellites to carry optic systems needed to make them a favourable science tool. Our Project is part of the micro satellites activities at our university (the TUB-Sat family). It is supervised by Prof. Briess the former project manager of the DLR BIRD mission. The core group consist of 3 master students from the TU-Berlin. Due to the high complexity of the topic we tried to acquire external expert knowledge from the beginning. With the help of nearly a dozen external experts of various fields we formed a well known science network. Technology The idea of avoiding volume limits by disassembling the telescope during transport was derived from a technology invented the amateur astronomers. It is called truss DOB-
SON design. The DST team wants to adapt this technology for space application. Applications for foldable telescopes Although the Dobson Space Telescope is designed as a micro satellite for earth observation and NEO survey the technology of foldable telescope design offers advantages for other satellites classes and missions, too. Even pico-satellites may benefit from this technology but the real bargain lies in apertures larger than 12inch.
Current status and Outlook We are at the end of the paper studies. In late 2003 we have constructed our first telescope. With the help of this mock-up we acquired funding for a lab model containing a 12inch main mirror. It will be built during 2004.
Unfolding and collimation The telescope will be unfolded with the deployment of the booms. After this the secondary mirror is about 1,5m depart from the main mirror but not exactly in the right position. Secondly micro actuators will fine adjust the position of the secondary mirror and thereby collimate the telescope. The fine adjustment can be seen as a mediator between the requirements of the optical system and the abilities of the booms.
Dobson Space Telescope Mock-up
42
Conference Coordination Board
The board has been formed to coordinate the organisation of the conference and is composed of members of ESA, SSO, EPFL and the SSETI Association
The CCB is backed by a local organisation committee at the EPFL composed of the following members:
Lierni Arana ESA Education Office Marie De Cock ESA Education Office Renato Krpoun EPFL, SSETI Association Neil Melville ESA Education Office Stphane Michaud EPFL Space Centre Daniel Neuenschwander Swiss Space Office Vincenzo Pulcino SSETI Association Phillipe Vollichard EPFL Space Centre Philipe Willekens ESA Education Office
Enterprise and public relations Vincent Schaller Speaker and participants relations Constantin Niemeyer Logistics & Catering Alexandre Hermann Andres Mller IT Infrastructure Lionel Clavien Finances Marc Tosetti
43

STEC Pages

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

STEC Pages

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Space Technology Education Conference

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Programme & Missions

for more information : www.sseti.net

ESEO - European Student Earth Orbiter

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Startiger III (Sky-sailor project)

Prof. Roland Siegwart - Prof. Stefan Catsicas

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

ESA Education Office

Medley of Education Office projects

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Swiss Space Office Hallwylstrasse 4 CH-3003 Berne e-mail : info@sso.admin.ch

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Lessons learned from 20 years of small satellites at CNES,

Pierre-Louis Contreras, CNES

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Space Technology Education

Institut fr Luft- und Raumfahrt Marchstrae 12-14 D-10587 Berlin www.ilr.tu-berlin.de/

BIRD ready for a vacuum-chamber test

through direct participation

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Pictures taken from the PROBA spacecraft

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

NCUBE prototype mechanical structure.

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

ThePROBA Ground Infrastructure and Mission Operations.

AAU Cubesat flight model radio test in the anechoic chamber

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

ESA-ESTEC, TOS-EDD, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands, david.hardy@esa.int

Teamsat - ESA's 'student satellite' being integrated in Kourou

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universitt Wrzburg schi@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Attitude control of microsatellites

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Artist's impression of SMART-1

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Kongsberg Satellite Services Svalbard Satellite Station

The Svalbard Station

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

AIV - Assembly, Integration and Verification ESEO

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

AOCS - Attitude and Orbit Control System ESEO

Instituto Superior Tecnico

Earth Horizon Sensor

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Communication ESEO, SSETI-Express

Escuela Superior de Ingegnieros

2 1. Structure model 2. Satellite's Configuration

Universit degli Studi "Federico II" Napoli

Battery pack-CATIA drawing

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya

25-pin gold-covered connector

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Mission Analysis - ESEO, SSETI Express

STEC 2004 - Space Technology Education Conference

Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) ESEO