Alberta Satellite Project
Posted by Vira Hughes
on Mar 07, 2016
On Tuesday we were treated to a very interesting talk from Charles Nokes, pictured, a U of A Engineering undergraduate, and project manager for the AlbertaSat Project.
This is a multi disciplinary project involving forty to fifty students, from many different faculties and departments, who have worked together for several years, to design and build a small cube satellite to be deployed into space this coming July.
The satellite is to be one of fifty cube satellites, in association with the QB 50 project at the von Kammen institute in Belgium, carrying payloads that will study the effect of solar wind and flares on low space (up to 400 kM) weather and communications.
The project is part of the U of A's commitment, through it's Institute for Space Science and Technology, to promote space science initiatives and opportunities in the space science industry in Alberta.
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Charles Nokes
The payload will consist of three main components. A common Langmuir probe, which will gather information on electron density and density of the plasma surrounding the earth, will be part of the payload.
The flight will also be a demonstration test for technologies developed at the U of A, a digital fluxgate magnetometer, which will measure the earth's magnetosphere, and an open source on board computer, named Athena.
The satellite will remain in orbit for about one year and will be monitored by students at the U of A. This project gave the students at the U of A experience with the many skills and technologies involved in design, building, testing, deployment and monitoring that is in use, in the space industry, and will serve as a basis for future business opportunities.