University of Victoria students are making their mark on space research by designing and building a miniature satellite, known as a CubeSat, to enter the cosmos.
The team is part of the Canadian CubeSat project, which began in 2017, and spent time putting the finishing touches on its creation at the Canadian Space Agency’s headquarters in Longueuil, Que.
UVic team member Alex Doknjas, a 27-year-old electrical engineering graduate, said there are about five full-time people preparing for the October launch of the device, which they call ORCASat, short for Optical Reference Calibration Satellite.
“It’s also built in BC and BC is known for killer whales, so that’s kind of the game there.”
The CubeSat will be packed into a rocket that has been launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is going to the International Space Station, which is at an altitude of 400 kilometers. There, it is launched into space using a spring-loaded device and remains aloft for up to 18 months collecting data that is monitored and analyzed by the university team.
When the CubeSat returns to Earth, it will burn up on re-entry.
The space agency selected 15 universities for grants of up to $250,000 for the national effort. UVic is leading one of the initiatives in cooperation with students from the University of BC and Simon Fraser University, and has previously won top prizes for its entries in the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge.
The main structure of CubeSats is made of aluminum and they are usually 10 by 10 by 10 centimeters, or about the size of a Rubik’s cube, weigh about one kilogram and can be used alone or in groups of up to 24. But the UVic device has a slightly different design and is a touch larger than the norm – about the size of a two liter milk carton.
The advent of smaller components has made compact satellites efficient and offer a cheaper option to build and launch.
“It’s amazing what you can do now with the advances in technology,” said Tony Pellerin, manager of the Canadian Space Agency’s mechanical engineering group.
In the early 1990s, a typical satellite weighed one ton. The size eventually dropped to 250 to 500 kilograms, since weight is the main expense of sending satellites into space. Some weigh less now.
CubeSats were developed with students in mind, but companies also use the devices for their own missions, Pellerin said.
Despite their size, CubeSats have uses ranging from carrying new cameras to test their reliability to conducting experiments such as gathering information about magnetic fields to evaluate their use in earthquake detection.
Plans for the CubeSats that are part of the student project include tracking Prince Edward Island’s potato crop to get a better idea of when to plant.
The Dalhousie University satellite will also launch in October, with the other 13 starting in early January.
Work began on ORCASat in September 2018, with UVic taking on the added challenge of building everything themselves, Doknjas said. The pandemic affected the original schedule, which was to be completed in two years.
“Ninety per cent of the spacecraft is designed, assembled, tested here in Victoria, and we also use a lot of local manufacturing to help us,” Doknjas said.
Another UVic team member, Stefan Bichlmaier, a 25-year-old fourth-year electrical and computer engineering student, said he joined the project just as he was starting his degree.
“At first I didn’t really understand the whole engineering process. I didn’t even know it was possible to be part of a project that could go to space.
“Putting something into space requires a lot of certainty in what you’re designing, so being a part of that was a great start to becoming an engineer.”
Pellerin said his satellite has basic elements such as an electrical system consisting of solar panels and batteries, a computer and a radio system for communication with the device.
He said UVic’s “scientific goal” is to have a satellite that functions as an “artificial star”, with a laser as its light source.
Like real stars, ORCASat emits light and is visible with a telescope, he said, although ORCASat will appear red instead of yellow.
As you look at the stars, you only know how bright they look to you, not how bright they really are, Doknjas said. But because ORCASat is equipped to measure its own brightness, the UVic team has two values to compare.
“They want to correct for the atmospheric effect on light,” Pellerin said. “They can transfer that information to astronomers, who can actually use that information to fine-tune their images when they look at the stars.”
Bichlmaier likened the experiment to removing the “glow” effect, caused by the atmosphere, from stars as seen from Earth.
The goal of the project is to provide teachers at post-secondary institutions the opportunity to introduce students to a real space mission, with experts from the space agency on hand to guide the teams.
About 510 CubeSats from 50 countries have been deployed since the first one went into space in 2003. The standard CubeSat size was established in 1999 by professors at California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University.
jbell@timescolonist.com
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