CP6

From PicoSatPortal

Creator California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo Launch Date 19th May 2009 Launch Site MARS LP-0B Launcher Minotaur-1 Perigee 435 km Apogee 471,6 km Inclination 40° Dimensions 10 x 10 x 10 cm³ Satellite Mass 1 Kg Communication Frequency 437.365 MHz Modulation FSK on SSB, the satellite was tuned to 437.365 LSB

The Cal Poly Picosatellite Project (PolySat) was founded in 1999 and involves a multidisciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate engineering students working to design, construct, test, launch, and operate a CubeSat.

Until now, six CubeSat has been developped by Cal Poly. CP6 development started when it was discovered that CP3 had low receive sensitivity issues. The backup flight unit of CP3 has since been modified with an LNA on the radio to increase uplink reliability, more robust software, and the addition of a secondary payload experiment built by NRL. The resulting satellite has been named CP6.

The primary mission of CP6 is to implement an attitude control system using only magnetic torquers embedded within the side panels. Attitude determination is performed using two-axis magnetometers on each side panel as well as observation imagers on the payload face.

Once the primary objectives have been met, a command will be sent to deploy the secondary payload that consists of a series of spring steel tapes. The data will be used to guide the future design of an electrodynamic tether.

[edit] External links

• Cal'Poly CubeSat's Site