[amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT NextGen Program Progress

[JoAnne Maenpaa]

> So Arisssat or suitsat 2 whatever it is called is now going to be 
> ready at the end of 2010?

It would seem that the first bullet point in nearly month old news (see
below) describes a portion of the relationship of ARISSat and NextGen, which
is a future satellite ...

<quote>
+ Intial analysis of ARISSat-1, documenting the systems, and analysis 
  of the lessons learned from ARISSat-1 and other prior spacecraft to
  create a building block architecture for future satellites.
</quote>

In case the news was missed the first time here is another copy ...

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-291.02
AMSAT, IBM, SUNY-Binghamton Announce NextGen CubeSat Development

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 291.02
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 18, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-291.02

AMSAT will work with a university student engineering team to
develop the NextGen Cubesat.

NextGen Program Manager, Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP introduced this new
program at the AMSAT Symposium. Alex revealed program goals and its
initial plans with a paper in the Proceedings and presentations to
the AMSAT Board of Directors and to the attendees during Symposium
sessions.

NextGen consists of AMSAT volunteer mentors working with IBM Global
Services Systems Engineering Division, and SUNY-Binghamton (also 
called University of Binghamton) senior level engineering students 
participating in their 'capstone' engineering project. 

Alex summarized the NexGen program goals:

+ Intial analysis of ARISSat-1, documenting the systems, and analysis 
  of the lessons learned from ARISSat-1 and other prior spacecraft to
  create a building block architecture for future satellites.

+ Open, modular, evolutionary, and documented design based on this
  analysis.

+ Redesigning the ARISSat-1 Power Systems into a next generation power 
  system using supercapacitors instead of batteries and reducing the 
  footprint of some of the boards.

+ Analysis and modification to the structure to incorporate deployable 
  solar panels with a scalable design that will work for 1U, 2U and 3U 
  sizes.

+ Design a Picosat-class bus structure that AMSAT, or any other Univer-
  sity, can use for 1U, 2U, or 3U CubeSat spacecraft. AMSAT could make 
  the open design available at low-to-no-cost to qualified University 
  groups.

+ An Engineering Model of the NextGen CubeSat spacecraft bus will be 
  on display at the Dayton Hamvention AMSAT Booth for everyone to 
  study.

Alex summarized, "Starting with our initial core team of 34 students,
plus advisers, mentors and volunteers at Binghamton University this
will be an ongoing effort. It is not a one time event, but the start 
of a stable, evolutionary design process that will further STEM (Sci-
ence, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) with the Next Generation 
of engineers and amateur radio operators. We are looking for other 
individuals and University/School teams to participate in all aspects 
of the spacecraft design - RF Systems - Guidance, Navigation, Control 
& Experiment Systems - Power & Structure Systems."

Volunteer mentors are needed! Even if you only have an hour a week, 
you can mentor a student over the phone or you can peer review a 
document that the students are working on. If you have more than an 
hour a week, you can implement a small design change to an existing 
subsystem; you could respin the board layout to meet a reduced form 
factor; you could redesign a module to use different technology.
Contact Alex via e-mail at amsat at elkmtn.org .

AMSAT's Board of Directors has approved the support of the University 
of Binghamton NextGen Cubesat Proposal and agreed to provide $1,200.00 
in immediate funding to the Binghamton Foundation to support student 
expenses and initially budgeted $10,000.00 to cover material costs 
associated with hardware development between September 2009 and May 
2010. The Board will review progress at the end of the first semester.

[ANS thanks Alex, N3NP and AMSAT Board of Directors for the above
 information]

/EX

--
73 de JoAnne K9JKM
k9jkm at amsat.org 
Editor, AMSAT News Service
Copy Editor, AMSAT Journal