KSP Community CubeSat

[tajampi]

I will create a blog (Blogger) so we can post updates there, i suppose i will keep it empty until we have something to show.

Cheers!

[Endersmens]

I will create a blog (Blogger) so we can post updates there, i suppose i will keep it empty until we have something to show.

Cheers!

There will be a blog on the website I am making.

Also, I apologize for my inactivity. My weekends are spent at work now, so I have very limited time to work on the site. (literally, I go from school to work on friday, until dark, saturday from 9AM to dark, and sunday after church till 7.)

[tajampi]

Oh ok, will delete it.

EDIT:

Will keep it as a template, just in case

Cheers!

[astropapi1]

One more thing, how will we generate the acceleration? Looks like we'll have to stick a counterweight stuck with a cable into the satellite and release it after deployment, so the electronics would have to go around the counterweight.

[henryrasia]

For the acceleration we can spin it REALLY fast (for an 1U cubesat), or make the mass longer by some kind of counterweight and spin slower, but that's counter productive IMO. (based on online calculators a 10 cm long thing would need to spin at 27 RPM for Mars gravity and 17 RPM for Moon gravity).

We should make a plan:

• 
  Satellite
  
• Flight systems (gyroscopes, thrusters, etc)
  
• Electronics (Flight computer and flight instruments(attitude sensor, etc))
  
• Experiment systems (feeding and watering moss, camera with microscope, temperature and light control, atmospheric pressure control, etc)
  Building and Launching
  
• Building actual satellite and testing it for conditions of launch and operation (stress, heat, cold, etc)
  Mission Control
  
• Comms relay from space to ground (how?). Data collection. Maneuver team (who will speed up/slow down the RPMs, for example?).
  

Anyone knows how to do blueprints? Cause those would be awesome to get a clear picture. Any concept artists out there?

Let's make it happen, people. This is an actual experiment best made in LEO, inexpensive, and useful for future colonization of the Moon and Mars. If it's successful we can even follow up with different species and bigger missions. (I want that Phobos landing!!!). An amateur space agency made up of hobbyists, enthusiasts, and volunteers, now that's cool!

[KSat]

Hello,

my models are ready to deploy. Feel free to texturize the CubeSats as you wish them.

I made the texture maps easy so you can edit them without any hassle of UV mapping. There are Side A, Side B , Side C , Side D , Back and Front. Also you can give the truss and the feet the color you like.

Also every face could have an engine. For further details look into the Howto file inside the package.

The pack includes a 1U and 2U CubeSat.

You can download the pack here.

Cheers,

KSat

[Nicholander]

Ah, awesome KSat, epic! Also, K^2, how are you doing on the sim?

EDIT: Also, sorry to bring up the balloon test again, but I found this picture of a CubeSat balloon test:

Though, I think we should put the equipment on the "Jeb Zeppelin", not bring up the whole assembled satellite.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Nicholander

[KSat]

Ah, awesome KSat, epic! Also, K^2, how are you doing on the sim?

Hello Nicholander,

So are there any volunteers to make a cool texture for the 1U CubeSat? You Nicholander?

If somebody need the blend or unity-files to refine the models contact me.

Cheers,

KSat

Edited October 1, 2014 by KSat

[Aethon]

Hmm... Anybody know any good modders??

Hi,

I wish this endeavor good luck as it would indeed be awesome.

MJ

[Nicholander]

KSat, I'm sorry, I don't know how to make textures, I'm so sorry. Also, It'd be cool if you could put an moss artificial gravity experiment in.

[KSat]

Hello again,

just to sooth the mind of the people who worry about the orbit littering. And to conform with Akins first law of spacecraft design:

"1. Engineering is done with numbers. Analysis without numbers is only an opinion."

In the graphic you will find the time of operation time till reentry. Find here information for the ballistic coefficient. I took the graphic from a space systems lecture from Prof. Fasoulas University of Stuttgart.

Maybe one technical detail, the deorbit time depends on the solar activity because high activity means more radiation, means denser highatmosphere, means higher drag, means faster decay.

Cheers KSat

Edited October 4, 2014 by KSat
Reuploaded picture

[Nicholander]

Ah, good find!

[henryrasia]

Is everyone so sure about the 1U size? I mean, sure, smaller is cheaper. Bu how are we going to put in reaction wheels, solar panels, motherboard, antenna, battery, petri dishes, artificial atmosphere and lighting (if it's spinning we can't rely on the sun, and the plant needs CO2) along with storage for CO2, sugar, and water, and waste O2 disposal? What about the camera+microscope, and all the cables? Are we fitting a trhuster in there too? I was personally thinking 2U as minimum without thruster, is there any 1U design with measurements?

[henryrasia]

ALSO! Why is the website in Latin??!! Like, really? Are we expected to be able to read it?

(EDIT: in "project documents" and "recent updates")

[dharak1]

We aren't using reaction wheels. magnetorquers to spin the craft presumably with the open end facing the sun to let light in. The algae has enough air to survive 2-3 weeks about the lifetime of the cubesat. No thrusters needed

[KSat]

ALSO! Why is the website in Latin??!! Like, really? Are we expected to be able to read it?

(EDIT: in "project documents" and "recent updates")

Hello henryasia,

I hope I am not confusing your post for irony.

The "latin" you mean is a commonly used as a place holder for layouting news papers etc.

See here :Lorem Ipsum

Cheers,

KSat

[henryrasia]

Oooooh... Sorry, then. So it's a more respectable version of:

Yadayada blabla something test test ---.-D_bAIFbwiuefb O_O lel fillertextfillertext etc

?

The more you know, I guess!

Still, anyone to answer my questions?

Edited October 2, 2014 by henryrasia

[Nicholander]

henryrasia, didn't we already answer them?

[NERVAfan]

Is everyone so sure about the 1U size? I mean, sure, smaller is cheaper. Bu how are we going to put in reaction wheels, solar panels, motherboard, antenna, battery, petri dishes, artificial atmosphere and lighting (if it's spinning we can't rely on the sun, and the plant needs CO2) along with storage for CO2, sugar, and water, and waste O2 disposal? What about the camera+microscope, and all the cables? Are we fitting a trhuster in there too? I was personally thinking 2U as minimum without thruster, is there any 1U design with measurements?

Mazon Del said that it doesn't need light, it can live using O2 respiration instead of CO2 photosynthesis for this timeframe. Similarly, I think it will just live on the sugar+water in the growth medium, with no provisions for supplying more, and there probably won't be waste disposal. It'll only survive a few weeks anyway due to orbit decay.

And no thrusters (at least for the first mission).

And the petri dish can be quite quite small, probably <10% of the volume of a 1U cubesat easily if we need it to be that small. Moss is low growing.

[Nicholander]

Also, any modders here? Anyone going to add textures to KSat's awesome CubeSat model?

[astropapi1]

Also, any modders here? Anyone going to add textures to KSat's awesome CubeSat model?

I could give a try, but we still don't know how it will end up looking like.

EDIT: Oh, by the way, I've got this mission on the way to Duna; thought you'd like it.

Edited October 3, 2014 by astropapi1

[Nicholander]

Not bad... Not bad... Do you have remote tech?

[henryrasia]

So the petri dish will be watered and sugar-ed in advance, and we hope it survives the cold void of space for the two weeks it'll be up there? Wouldn't that hinder growth (another variable, making the experiment less scientific)? I'm thinking at least a pressurized petri dish with regular air. That solution would still be light and small.

And Nicholander, I asked a bunch of questions about the design of the cubesat which I'm not going to copy over again. If this is for real then we can't stay in estimations. For example, if it's a 1U cubesat then it'd need to be spinning REALLY fast. Also, are we testing for Mars and Moon gravity? How can we do that?

I hope I sound constructive, because I'm afraid this project will never leave paper. Hell, it might never even get written down on a paper. Sorry again for my tone, I just really want this to happen...

[NERVAfan]

So the petri dish will be watered and sugar-ed in advance,

Nothing's official yet. But from the information Mazon Del posted, I think that makes the most sense.

and we hope it survives the cold void of space for the two weeks it'll be up there?

Thermal control will be necessary, yes. (But I think heat will be at least as big a problem as cold; space isn't really 'cold' - a vacuum has no temperature. In sunlight it will get hot, in shadow it will lose heat by radiation.)

Wouldn't that hinder growth (another variable, making the experiment less scientific)?

All these conditions except the gravity can be easily replicated on Earth. (The thermal control should prevent radical temperature swings.)

I'm thinking at least a pressurized petri dish with regular air. That solution would still be light and small.

Yeah, that sounds about right. I don't think we'd need an unusual gas mix or anything.

For example, if it's a 1U cubesat then it'd need to be spinning REALLY fast.

Well, a 1U cubesat is a 10cm cube.

This artificial gravity calculator (http://www.artificial-gravity.com/sw/SpinCalc/SpinCalc.htm) suggests 53.5 rotations per minute to produce 0.16 g with a radius of 0.05 m. That's less than one rotation per second; doesn't sound TOO insane.

Also, are we testing for Mars and Moon gravity? How can we do that?

Well, we can't do both at once in the same cubesat*. We could switch partway through, but this experiment is probably sharply time-limited due to orbital decay. Maybe we should just do Moon gravity, and if we have enough funding follow it up with a Mars gravity "Kerbsat-2" or whatever?

*well, I think technically a rotating object will have 0 rotational gravity at the axis of rotation and maximum at the edge, so yes, you can have different rotational g's in the same spacecraft. However, that sounds really ambitious for something this small.

[KSat]

I could give a try, but we still don't know how it will end up looking like.

Hello astropapi1,

i quote again some Akins Laws (I like them):

9. Not having all the information you need is never a satisfactory excuse for not starting the analysis.

So just give it a shot with the stuff we already know. And for the rest:

10. When in doubt, estimate. In an emergency, guess. But be sure to go back and clean up the mess when the real numbers come along.

So you have the artistic freedom for the design, as long as it its not utterly implausible. But be also aware, when the project progresses and cleaning up in progress the design will change:

4. Your best design efforts will inevitably wind up being useless in the final design. Learn to live with the disappointment.

But having a first design, that is going to change, is better than having no design.

Also if the kickstarter campaign is launched, it is much much better to have a video with a spacecraft than some textual description.

Cheers,

KSat