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27-685: In January 2005, the University of Texas won the University Nanosat-3 Program , a grant-based competition that included 12 other participating universities. As a winner, FASTRAC was given the opportunity to launch its satellites into space. The student-led team received $ 100,000 from AFRL for the competition portion of the project, and another $ 100,000 for the implementation phase. FASTRAC is the first student-developed satellite mission incorporating on-orbit real-time relative navigation, on-orbit real-time attitude determination using

54-481: A PSK31 Linear/FM Satellite translator accepting 3 kHz SSB channel in the 10 meter band at 29.4 MHz and repeating that in baseband on a VHF or UHF narrow-band FM downlink. This is intended to allow multiple simultaneous full duplex narrow band communications using morse or PSK31 to be relayed by PCSat2. This article related to amateur radio is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about one or more spacecraft of

81-446: A competition for selection for that program cycle. Typically 10-11 awards are made during this initial phase. Grants are offered to the awardees to participate in a rigorous two-year process to design and develop their satellite concept. At the end of the two years, a Flight Competition Review is held where judges evaluate each program's progress and readiness to move to the next phase. Winners from each cycle are offered launch by AFRL when

108-417: A micro-discharge plasma thruster with a command from the ground that will autonomously operate when the thrusting vector is within a 15 degree cone of the anti-velocity vector. The thruster operation will be dependent on the on-orbit real-time single antenna GPS attitude determination solution. After this phase is over, a command from the ground station will disable the thruster on FASTRAC 1. The final phase of

135-673: A single GPS antenna, and a micro-discharge plasma thruster. FASTRAC launched on 19 November 2010 aboard a Minotaur IV rocket from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Kodiak, Alaska . Separation of the satellites from each other and cross-link communication were successfully carried out. FASTRAC was developed under the US Air Force Research Laboratory University Nanosatellite Program, and was ranked number 32 in

162-534: A tie-breaker decision. The Nanosat-9 Flight Selection Review process resulted in selection of the University of Georgia MOCI payload as winner with the University of Colorado at Boulder's MAXWELL coming in second. In November 2021, three universities were notified of selection for flight when each program's satellite is ready for launch. The Nanosat-11 competition was announced in August 2021. Participants were notified by AFRL of onward inclusion in

189-441: Is a KPC-9612+ from Kantronics. Both the transmitter and receiver relay boards were designed and manufactured in house. The command & data handling (C&DH) system is composed by four distributed AVRs which were developed by Santa Clara University . Each AVR has an Atmega 128 microcontroller and controls an individual subsystem on the satellite (i.e.: COM, EPS, GPS, and THR or IMU). The AVRs communicate with each other through

216-471: Is composed of eight solar panels , a VREG box, and a battery box. The battery box is made from black anodized aluminum and holds 10 Sanyo N4000-DRL D-cells provided to the team by AFRL. Both the solar panels and the VREG board were designed and made in-house. On each satellite, the VREG board distributes power from three VICOR VI-J00 voltage regulators, and also charges the batteries with the power collected from

243-561: The I2C bus . The GPS position and attitude determination system was designed and built by student researchers at The University of Texas' GPS Research Lab. The system utilizes GPS code measurements, as well as antenna signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and 3-axis magnetometer measurements to provide estimates of position, velocity, and attitude. Each satellite will have redundant ORION GPS receivers, dual cross-strapped antennas with RF switching and splitting hardware. The power system for each satellite

270-654: The Space Development and Test Wing and the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate's Spacecraft Technology division. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center was involved from the program inception through Nanosat-3. The UNP is a recurring competition that involves two phases. The first phase (Phase A) occurs as university teams initially respond to a solicitation posted by the UNP program or one of its partner organizations. The solicitation results in

297-586: The Space Experiments Review Board 's list of prioritised spacecraft experiments in 2006. The spacecraft were expected to demonstrate Global Positioning System relative navigation and micro-charge thruster performance. The main mission sequence is composed of six distinct phases: Launch, Launch Vehicle Separation, Initial Acquisition, GPS Onboard Relative Navigation, Onboard Single Antenna GPS Attitude Determination and Micro-discharge Plasma Thruster Operation, and Amateur Radio Operations. In

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324-739: The Nanosat-11 effort on November 23, 2021 PCSat2 PCSat2 is an amateur radio satellite created by the U.S. Naval Academy . It was installed on the International Space Station on August 3, 2005. PCSAT2 was recovered from the outside of the ISS by astronauts on the 3rd EVA of mission STS-115 and was returned to Earth. PCsat2 transmitted packet bursts every 3 minutes on 437.975 MHz. It had an UHF FM repeater on 437.975 MHz +/− 9 kHz, and 1200/9600 baud digital operation. It also carried

351-704: The Nanosat-7 opportunity: The Nanosat-8 cycle started in late 2012 with the selection of 10 competing schools. AFRL announced the winners of the Nanosat-8 cycle in February 2015. The first four winners included Missouri University of Science and Technology, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Taylor University respectively. With a tie for fifth spot, Boston University and State University of New York at Buffalo teams will support deep-dive visits from judges to each program for

378-802: The University of Texas at Austin’s Formation Autonomous Spacecraft with Thruster, Relative-Navigation, Attitude and Crosslink or FASTRAC satellite(s) as the winner. Events and Milestones: In March 2005, eleven universities were chosen from the submitted proposals to compete in the Nanosat-4 Phase B effort. CUSat was selected the winner of the cycle in March 2007. Events and Milestones: The Nanosat-5 competition began in January 2007 with 11 universities being selected from 26 proposal submissions. The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment or DANDE

405-470: The atmosphere. The FASTRAC team has estimated that it will take six months to successfully achieve its mission objectives. The structure of the FASTRAC satellites is a hexagonal iso-grid design that is composed of two titanium adapter plates, aluminum 6061 T-6 side panels, six hollow outer columns with inserts and six inner columns. The mass of the two nanosatellites is approximately 127 lbs with all of

432-480: The components included. The communications architecture is based on a system flown on PCSat2 . The FASTRAC implementation consists of two receivers, one transmitter, a terminal node controller (TNC), a transmitter relay board, and a receiver relay board. On FASTRAC 1 "Sara Lily", two R-100 VHF receivers and one TA-451 UHF transmitter from Hamtronics are used. On FASTRAC 2 "Emma", two R-451 UHF receivers and one TA-51 VHF transmitter from Hamtronics are used. The TNC used

459-812: The data to the radio operator section on the FASTRAC Website Archived 2010-11-23 at the Wayback Machine . University Nanosatellite Program The University Nanosat Program is a satellite design and fabrication competition for universities. It is jointly administered by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA),

486-516: The desired orbit, the satellites will be powered on by the launch vehicle before finally separating from the launch vehicle. The third phase will begin once the two nanosatellites are ejected from the rocket. During this phase, there will be a 30-minute period where the satellites will go through a check out and initialization process. After this period, the satellites will begin transmitting beacon messages containing telemetry information that will help determine each satellite's status. During this phase

513-514: The first phase, the two nanosatellites will be launched on the Department of Defense Space Test Program STP-S26 Mission from Kodiak Launch Complex (KLC) in Kodiak, Alaska. They will be transported to a 72 degree inclination circular low Earth orbit with an altitude of 650 km by a Minotaur IV rocket. Initially, the two nanosatellites will be in a stacked configuration. Once the rocket reaches

540-410: The ground station will attempt to establish first contact with the satellites and perform a check out procedure to make sure all the subsystems on board are working correctly. It is expected that this checkout procedure will take several hours or even a few days depending on the duration of the communication passes with the ground station. Once the operators are satisfied with the status of the satellites,

567-566: The ground, it will be only be active when one of the two nozzles is within a 15 degree cone of the anti-velocity vector. The thruster subsystem is only present on FASTRAC 1 "Sara Lily". On FASTRAC 2 "Emma", instead of using a thruster, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) MASIMU01 from Micro Aerospace Solutions is used to measure the separation of the two satellites. The FASTRAC satellites transmit and receive data (GPS, Health, etc.) on amateur radio frequencies. All amateur radio operators are encouraged to downlink data from either satellite and upload

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594-508: The mission will start once the communication architecture of the satellites is reconfigured from the ground to work with the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) network. This will make the satellites available to amateur radio users all around the world. Once the ground station loses all communication with the satellites, the mission will be terminated and the satellites will passively de-orbit, burning up in

621-543: The satellites will be commanded from the ground to separate, finalizing the third phase of the mission. When the satellites have successfully separated, the primary mission will begin, signaling the start of fourth phase. First, the satellites will autonomously establish a cross-link, or in other words, they will communicate with each other through UHF / VHF bands. The satellites will then exchange GPS data through this cross-link in order to calculate on-orbit real time relative navigation solutions. The fifth phase will activate

648-531: The solar panels. There are two separation systems for the FASTRAC satellites, both designed and manufactured by Planetary Systems Corporation (PSC), which will be used to separate the satellites in their stacked configuration from the Launch Vehicle and then to separate the two satellites while they are in orbit. The PSC Lightband Separation System is composed of two spring-loaded rings and a motorized release mechanism. The micro-discharge plasma thruster

675-895: The systems are ready for flight. Other U.S. Government agencies, such as NASA through the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) initiative, also step in to offer launch opportunities when available. Since 1999, there have been 11 cycles of the program. The program's objective is to train tomorrow's space professionals by providing a rigorous two year concept to flight-ready spacecraft competition for U. S. higher education institutions and to enable small satellite research and development (R&D), integration and flight test. Approximately 5,000 college students and 40 institutions of higher learning have been involved in this unique experience since its inception in 1999. Events and Milestones: The Nanosat-3 cycle started in 2003 when 13 universities were chosen to compete. The panel selected

702-464: Was designed and built at UT-Austin. The thruster channels and superheats an inert gas through a micro-channel nozzle producing a micro-Newton level of thrust. It uses a custom made composite tank from CTD. The operation of the thruster will be automated by the spacecraft C&DH using the attitude measurements provided by the GPS attitude determination system. After enabling the operation of the thruster from

729-704: Was selected to continue on toward launch. Events and Milestones: The Nanosat-6 Program Flight Competition Review was sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A panel of judges from the Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Test Program, Air Force Institute of Technology and industry selected the winners identified in the table below. Events and Milestones: Eleven schools were selected to pursue

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