CUSat: Nanosat-4 Winner
Published on Apr 5, 2007 at 4:24 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under space exploration.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Orbital Express mission. One of the goals of that mission is to evaluate technology that may allow autonomous robotic maintenance satellites to perform routine maintenance and repairs on satellites in orbit. Today, I am going to write about CUSat, a student designed satellite from Cornell University. CUSat was selected last week as the winner of the University Nanosatellite Program (Nanosat-4 Competition). The goal of this program is to promote space engineering by allowing students to work on designs for very small and inexpensive satellites (inexpensive is relative: It will still cost about $500,000 to complete the CUSat satellite). As winner of the competition, CUSat will be launched for free, so all the money raised for the project can go towards construction and operation of CUSat. If everything goes well, then CUSat might be able to be launched within two years or so.
CUSat is launched as a small hexagonal “cylinder” that separates into two identical pieces in orbit. The pieces then move about 10 meters apart. Each sub-satellite can then maneuver around the other one taking pictures of its companion. Using GPS positioning, the CUSat team believes that the CUSat can achieve up to a 2 degree pointing accuracy. The high resolution images are then beamed back to Earth, where they can be used to create a highly accurate 3-D model of the object being studied.
The goal of this program is to demonstrate technology that will allow a robotic satellite to produce high resolution images capable of allowing technicians on the ground to assess the condition of another satellite in orbit. Such a technology, coupled with that being demonstrated with Orbital Express could mean that a fleet of robotic repair satellites could one day be servicing satellites in orbit. That would mean that if a satellite were to cease functioning, there might be a chance of repairing it, rather than the inoperative satellite simply becoming so much more space junk.
But, this technology can also be used in other ways. It doesn’t have to be a repair satellite collecting data. It might be a robotic rover on another world looking at some geological feature, or perhaps a robotic spacecraft studying an asteroid (of course, such uses would mean using something other than GPS positioning to orient the craft). Perhaps a robotic bomb disposal unit could use the technology to create a 3-D model of a potential bomb an an operator’s notebook computer some safe distance away, or maybe a robot could analyze structural members in a damaged building to see if it were safe for firefighters to enter. There is really a host of uses for this technology beyond just satellite repair.
-Astroprof
(Images courtesy of Cornell Unversity)
Thanks to Scott for bringing this to my attention.
