Our Clyde Space battery has been delivered! It came in a large and rather heavy parcel: As I was carrying it into the office to see what’s in it I was wondering how they managed to make the battery, which fits into a 10 by 10 cm cubesat envelope, so heavy. Turns out the battery came […]
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Testing and calibrating the magnetometer
The attitude control subsystem (ACS) on-board the UoS3 uses a permanent magnet to align one of the satellite’s axes with Earth’s local magnetic field. Such a solution does not any consume any energy, which is a scarce resource on a cubesat. Especially when flying a power-hungry GNSS receiver. However, in order to fulfil our scientific […]
Satellite is Fully Funded
We received truly amazing news today. The University of Southampton’s Education Enhancement Fund will fund the UoS3 project. This is a game changer for us as it enables complete manufacturing and testing of the complete satellite system. The Education Enhancement Fund is an initiative of the University to support projects that enhance the education of […]
Power subsystem PCB manufactured
We finished our power subsystem printed circuit board (PCB)! It’s the first complete piece of UoS3 electronics that we made in-house, so it’s a big moment for us. This board houses all the components that take part in distributing the power on board the satellite. This is to say this board gathers the energy from […]
Solar panel delivery
Today is a big day for us and UoS3 – we received two of our solar panels today! They were manufactured by DHV Technology, a Spanish company that has been working with us to design and build custom-made solar panels that will fit into our cubesat. So far we only bought two of these because […]
Putting attitude control subsystem together
The way we stabilise the satellite is fully passive – we use Earth’s magnetic field to do the job for us. What ensures the camera and antennae on board the spacecraft are directed towards the Earth surface (i.e. are pointed at the nadir) is a permanent magnet. This magnet aligns itself with the local magnetic […]
3D Printed Parts Arrive
Short status update: At the moment, we have three teams working on the power subsystem, the telecommunication subsystem and the attitude control system. Those groups will wrap up their work early next year. We also received much anticipated 3D printed parts. Mainly, this is the redesigned antenna deployment mechanism. It does not look like much […]
Satellite Article in the Wessex Scene
We met with the Deputy Editor of the University of Southampton student newspaper “Wessex Scene” and they did an excellent feature story about our satellite. Be sure to check it out. Together with the Wessex Scene, we are looking forward to additional collaboration in the form of feature pieces that focus on special aspects of […]
Assembly Dry Run
Today, Alek and I did a satellite assembly dry run. We expect that we will soon have more printed circuit boards to place inside the satellite and we want to know how we assemble the satellite when we get to this point. Naturally, we identified some issues that we will sort out in the days […]
Power Subsystem Prototype Completed
This Friday, electronics student Omar Shetta delivered the prototype for the Power Subsystem of UoS3. The power board monitors the charging level of the batteries, controls the power input from the solar cells, power distribution and protects other electrical components (such as sensors) from getting fried by potential power surges. Omar, under the competent supervision […]
