Plasma brake satellite

[totalitor]

June 23rd Finnish satellite Aalto-1 will be launched to orbit by Indian PSLV rocket.

This is interesting: Development and demonstration of a deorbiting device for nanosatellites based on e-sail concept and measurement of its performance.

More info here: https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/a/aalto-1

And here is me holding model of that satellite. I find somehow cool that satellite has my name...

 

[Scotius]

Interesting. What are expected orbital parameters of this sat?

[NSEP]

Sounds cool! Good luck to them!

(I personally think that a Finnish satellite launching on an Indian rocket is kind if strange. I thought Finland, being part of ESA, this would, on an Ariane or Vega, but whatever.)

[totalitor]

Sun-synchronous near-circular orbit, altitude of 640 km, inclination = 97.8º,

[Starman4308]

It continues to amaze me how much scientific equipment can be carried onboard such a tiny little satellite.

I'd be curious to know when you expect the tether's electrostatic drag force to be exceeded by atmospheric drag in de-orbiting Aalto-1.

I suppose one major advantage of the electrostatic tether method of de-orbiting is that you don't need to carry any sort of propellant; the usual suspects for small motors (hydrazine, hydrogen peroxide) are right out due to either being unstable or hilariously toxic. I suppose a cold-gas thruster might work, but you typically need a pretty heavy pressure vessel to contain that, and overall it just seems like an electrostatic tether is a far better option for nanosatellites unable to carry their own propulsion.

[Racescort666]

On 6/21/2017 at 8:31 PM, Starman4308 said:

It continues to amaze me how much scientific equipment can be carried onboard such a tiny little satellite.

I'd be curious to know when you expect the tether's electrostatic drag force to be exceeded by atmospheric drag in de-orbiting Aalto-1.

I suppose one major advantage of the electrostatic tether method of de-orbiting is that you don't need to carry any sort of propellant; the usual suspects for small motors (hydrazine, hydrogen peroxide) are right out due to either being unstable or hilariously toxic. I suppose a cold-gas thruster might work, but you typically need a pretty heavy pressure vessel to contain that, and overall it just seems like an electrostatic tether is a far better option for nanosatellites unable to carry their own propulsion.

If you're making a cubesat that's smaller than a 3U, there aren't a lot of options but for 3U and bigger, there's quite a bit. Aerojet Rocketdyne offers quite a few options: http://www.rocket.com/cubesat for various missions with different fuels. Plus there are others with different propulsion technology that could fit within the requirements of a cubesat: http://www.busek.com/technologies__main.htm

[monophonic]

On 6/21/2017 at 7:05 PM, NSEP said:

Sounds cool! Good luck to them!

(I personally think that a Finnish satellite launching on an Indian rocket is kind if strange. I thought Finland, being part of ESA, this would, on an Ariane or Vega, but whatever.)

It was originally scheduled to go up on a Falcon 9 with Formosat-5, but the LC-40 explosion changed that. The PLSV was the earliest free slot they could find and/or afford on scheduled launches. Ironically that also meant the first orbiting satellite fully built in Finland was Aalto-2 which was sent to the ISS aboard a Cygnus on 18 Apr 17 (timezone not indicated). It was released on May 25th and ceased to answer on June 12th.

All Aalto series satellites are student projects of Aalto university. Their primary mission is to teach spacecraft manufacture. Aalto-3 is already being made and slated for launch in 2019.

http://spacecraft.aalto.fi/en/

[Starman4308]

On 6/23/2017 at 10:07 AM, Racescort666 said:

If you're making a cubesat that's smaller than a 3U, there aren't a lot of options but for 3U and bigger, there's quite a bit. Aerojet Rocketdyne offers quite a few options: http://www.rocket.com/cubesat for various missions with different fuels. Plus there are others with different propulsion technology that could fit within the requirements of a cubesat: http://www.busek.com/technologies__main.htm

Thanks for the link; I really had thought hydrazine would be too toxic to muck about with for a cubesat. Maybe then, they ship you just the empty propulsion system, and you pay the payload integration team to fill up the hydrazine tank before putting it on the launch vehicle?

[ChrisDayVACCO]

There are propulsion systems for CubeSats designed for destinations like Mars and Lunar orbit and the popular ones avoid Hydrazine due to its toxicity and high cost to work with.  Here are some links for more information:

Lunar Flashlight propulsion system:

http://www.cubesat-propulsion.com/lunar-flashlight-propulsion-system/

Mars-Cube-One (MarCO) propulsion system:

http://www.cubesat-propulsion.com/jpl-marco-micro-propulsion-system/

Here is a CubeSat prop system in orbit right now:

http://www.cubesat-propulsion.com/reaction-control-propulsion-module/

[YNM]

26 minutes ago, ChrisDayVACCO said:

*list of stuff it actually sells*

Interesting.

Though the thread's a bit old, and I don't have much idea what to comment on it properly.

[PB666]

52 minutes ago, YNM said:

Interesting.

Though the thread's a bit old, and I don't have much idea what to comment on it properly.

too late, you already did. Busik has a dozen of different small sat power. Small sats are easy to power, solar panels are flat, the smaller the sat the easier it is for solar panels to power them.