Cubesat Project

Rincon ResearchMatt Bunting

Mike Parker, John JensenUniversity of Arizona

4/17/08

Rincon Research

• Started in 1983

• DSP Research

• Build FPGA and RF products

• Designed for national security

• Began cubesat research in 1996

Cubesat

• 10cm*10cm*10cm cube

• Launched in batches

• Launch cost approximately $10k

Rincon Cubesat History

• 2 original satellites

• RINCON, SACRED

• 6 years to build

• Launched in 2006

• Launch was a failure

• Restarted project

Proposal

• Build a Cubesat with three dipole antennas

• Measure polarization of EM waves

• Proposal sent in by Mike Parker and John Jensen

• Missed deadline for proposal

• Could not get funding in time for this year

Related Project

• Cubesats generally use low power antennas

• High gain ground station antenna

• High gain antennas are directional

• Need to point antenna directly at satellite

• Goal: build a tracking system that points an antenna to a satellite in orbit

Antenna

• Yagi antenna

• Results in high gain

• Highly directional

• Measures polarization

Rotator

• Control both Azimuth and Elevation

• Controlled through RS-232

Position rotator

• Convert GPS data to spherical coordinates

• Convert Spherical coordinates to cartesian position

• Determine azimuth and elevation for rotator

Automatic Packet Reporting System

• APRS

• May be used for Tracking

• Had intention to us APRS for testing

• Receive data through RS-232

Python

• Easy to program

• Highly used language at Rincon

Result

• Controlled rotator perfectly

• Received GPS data well

• Calculated rotator position perfectly

• Never could get a computer with two RS-232 ports

• Could never check final code

Thank You