KSP Community CubeSat

[Newt]

The ring will be on the center of the sat indeed, but I am not entirely sure what you mean by which axis, the cubesat, being a cube, lacks a clear front or back.

The sat will be oriented to keep one face pointing at the Sun (for solar power) and the entire vehicle will spin (as making one part only spin is a mechanical nightmare), along the axis facing to the Sun.

As for an update on general progress, we have found some software to find satellite's position, range, and other data, using parameters which NORAD makes available publicly, this way we do not have to set up our own complicated and expensive tracking stations, which would be a hassle.

Moss experiments are going slowly, and we are trying to get materials and guidance from various sources, it is just somewhat drawn out. This has stalled a couple of areas of design around the moss storage area, but we are trying to work elsewhere until this area can advance.

Much of that elsewhere is currently centered on a computer simulation environment, which we intend to use to put together the sat's attitude control software. As we build up the different parts of the control software, we will be able to subject the sat virtually to various problems and see if it can keep everything going smoothly and without bugs. This way we should have a fairly robust program that can maintain power, radio contact, and other systems, which would be bad to not have before launch.

[Robotengineer]

Thanks, I had gotten the rectangular double cubesats mixed up with single unit ones. I'd like to help out, so if there is anything I can do, PM me.

[mcfliinty]

NDT/NDE guy here if the need arises. I've been watching this forum for quite a while now and this was interesting enough to post, I hadn't seen it before. Great idea

[Akira_R]

This is so awesome.

One thing though in regards to the response by Newt on the spin axis of the sat, and I am sure some one has mentioned it at some point, but wouldn't the axis the cubesat is spinning on need to remain constant in order to get reliable data on the effects of 0g-1g on the growth?

In the picture posted by apopapi1 I am going to call x-axis running left to right, y-axis up and down, and z-axis front to back, the view point is oriented towards the origin at 45 degrees between the z and y axis, rotated around the x axis. Wouldn't you want the sat continuously spinning on the y-axis so that the experiment container would act as a centrifuge applying a reliable and calculable amount of g forces to the experiment? If the spin axis changed to the x or z-axis then you would end up with g forcess that vary around the ring making things more complicated and at least in my view a little less reliable in terms of data collected.

Or is this a non-issue or something that is desirable?

Just looking to better understand the workings.

Edited February 24, 2015 by Akira_R

[gutza1]

Hmm. This project seems to be an excellent endeavor. I'd like to pay attention to it. At the moment of posting, I am a soon-to-be 14 year old who has experience with programming in Python and Java. I have a suggestion, though. If you are going to Kickstart it, why not buy a cheap 3D printer to manufacture the chassis and other purely structural non-metallic components? That will get rid of having to custom-order or manually weld those parts and acts as a long-term investment. I'm sure some KSP players already own 3D-printers that they could utilize for free. Just my 2 cents. I'm interested in joining this project, actually. I have a Raspberry Pi already.

[Luka M]

This is my hobby, you know. I have launched one of these. I also build model rockets, big ones. My school did a cube sat launch which was quite cool, that's why I decided to launch my own.

[Nicholander]

Really? I know you're joking. Still, you'd be great help to the project anyway.

[deljr15]

In the picture posted by apopapi1 I am going to call x-axis running left to right, y-axis up and down, and z-axis front to back, the view point is oriented towards the origin at 45 degrees between the z and y axis, rotated around the x axis. Wouldn't you want the sat continuously spinning on the y-axis so that the experiment container would act as a centrifuge applying a reliable and calculable amount of g forces to the experiment? If the spin axis changed to the x or z-axis then you would end up with g forcess that vary around the ring making things more complicated and at least in my view a little less reliable in terms of data collected.

Or is this a non-issue or something that is desirable?

In this picture the Z axis will be the up/down axis. The solar panels will be mounted to the top. The satellite will spin about this axis. The rotation of the satellite will create the artificial gravity.

Here is a view with a mock up sample container.

Also note the frame in the photo came from cubesatshop.com - not advertising just giving credit where credit is due.

[Kip336]

Been reading up on this topic for a while, I might actually sign up and see if I can help.

Just a suggestion to lower stress levels and add some humor; Ya'll should get in touch with SpaceX / Elon Musk about the launch. With him liking KSP, he might actually 'donate' a launch !

[PB666]

Phobos is a good idea, but what could we do there with a cubesat beyond landing? And how exactly would we get there?

Landing would be great, but a better mission is to do terrain mapping in preparation for a future mission. Put a Cannae drive on it and see if it works, lol. K-2 would be fit to be tied.

Phobos is the best target.

[HafCoJoe]

I'm sure it's been mentioned here before, but it is extremely important for satellites to have completely solid state mechanics on the inside (other then reaction wheels which are meant for spinning). One of the first satellites had a disc drive inside and once it began it's spin up, the satellite followed conservation of rotational velocity and began spinning the opposite way, thus resulting in a catastrophic failure. Food for thought .

[Nicholander]

Landing would be great, but a better mission is to do terrain mapping in preparation for a future mission. Put a Cannae drive on it and see if it works, lol. K-2 would be fit to be tied.

Phobos is the best target.

The delta-v required to land on Phobos is almost literally nothing. (3 M/S) So, why orbit when you can land?

[Rakaydos]

The delta-v required to land on Phobos is almost literally nothing. (3 M/S) So, why orbit when you can land?

TWR is still an issue. I did the numbers when we were consideering an ion mission- a 4.5 KG sat with one of the marketed cubesat ion drives would barely even hover.

Phobos is tiny, but electric propulsion is equall weak.

[Nicholander]

I think small RCS thrusters would do the trick. They'd only be used briefly.

[Sampa]

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait... I'm confused here, what is this topic on? Can someone explain this to me, please?

[Newt]

In a general description, we are attempting to design, build, and fly a small, 1U cubesat in LEO. The cubesat will carry a cargo of moss and a small set of sensing instruments, cameras and possibly others, to monitor the life and death of several moss samples in different psuedogravity conditions, generated by rapid spinning of the vehicle around an axis. while often people talk about farms on Mars or the Moon, there has not been particular investigation into the growth of plants in any gravity environment apart from 1 and 0 gees. We thought we could help with that.

The Mars flight and Phobos landing had been suggested, but it is not currently the target to go beyond LEO, although there is another group associated with KSP trying to fly a lunar orbiting satellite.

[Sampa]

In a general description, we are attempting to design, build, and fly a small, 1U cubesat in LEO. The cubesat will carry a cargo of moss and a small set of sensing instruments, cameras and possibly others, to monitor the life and death of several moss samples in different psuedogravity conditions, generated by rapid spinning of the vehicle around an axis. while often people talk about farms on Mars or the Moon, there has not been particular investigation into the growth of plants in any gravity environment apart from 1 and 0 gees. We thought we could help with that.

The Mars flight and Phobos landing had been suggested, but it is not currently the target to go beyond LEO, although there is another group associated with KSP trying to fly a lunar orbiting satellite.

IRL or in game?

[Rakaydos]

The Mars flight and Phobos landing had been suggested, but it is not currently the target to go beyond LEO, although there is another group associated with KSP trying to fly a lunar orbiting satellite.

The long range missions plan, last I heard, was:

1) LEO Cubesat (in progress) to prove we can.

2) LEO propulsion test- Electrotether, ion (or Canne if it seems like it's panning out by then) sat that is trying to generate a lunar flyby from LEO, such that the sat leaves earth SoI and returns 1 year later.

3) Aerocapture testing- repeat the LEO prupulsion test with a heat shield, attempting to aerocapture into orbit after the year in space.

4) Mars intercept and aerocapture- launched from GTO into a lunar slingshot, 1 year in space, an earth slingshot to mars, and martian aerocapture. If possible, radar map phobos.

5) Phobo landing attempt- No fancy science gear just follow the last mission profile, get into the mars/phobos L1 point, and "fall" a few KM to phobos's surface with ion retrothrust.

[Nicholander]

I like that plan, but I don't think we need a 4th to go to Mars and not land on Phobos. We can land on Phobos in that 4th mission. Heck, maybe even we can shrink that down to 3 missions, having the 2nd one also include the aerocapture.

I've also been thinking about using the CAT Engine, which is specifically designed for CubeSats, and with a CubeSat that has a dry mass of 5 kg and 2.5 kg of fuel, it can get 13,586 m/s of Delta-v. Sounds fantastic, I know, but it seems that it has an absolutely tiny amount of thrust, look at this video of it getting Earth escape velocity from LEO. (About 3 km/s of delta-v required to do that)

It seems like it would take at least 3 years to do that. Look at the bottom left corner, that shows the date. At the start it's June 1st 2013, and at the end it's mid-late 2016. Yeah. So it would negate the need for a carrier to get us to GTO, but it has very low thrust.

EDIT: I found a 2nd video using the same engine, which gets escape velocity in half a year, a great improvement! Here:

Edited March 4, 2015 by Nicholander

[Newt]

IRL or in game?

In reality.

[Sampa]

In reality.

Ok, now I'm interested! Hope to hear more about this!

[Newt]

Feel free to head over to our external forum site, mossat.org. That is where most of the planning and discussion are currently taking place.

Thank you for the interest.

[SGT_RIZZO300]

Just stumbled upon this thread and it took me a good 5 minutes to realize that this was talking about a real sat. Would love to see this happen!

[henryrasia]

Erm, just asking, is mossat.org down? Is everyone still on board?

[Mazon Del]

Looks up to me. Might have had a spurt. I temporarily need a bit of a hiatus from it as my rover project (entrant in the NASA SRR Challenge) is nearing its critical phases now that all this darn snow is melting.