Name | CATSAT |
---|---|
Type | CubeSat |
Units or mass | 6U |
Status | not launched, expected in 2023 |
Organisation | University of Arizona |
Institution | University |
Entity | Academic / Education |
Nation | US |
Costs | $450000 for the GomSpace 6U platform. |
Oneliner |
Deploy and demonstrate an inflatable one-meter spherical antenna in Earth’s orbit. |
Description |
Deploy and demonstrate an inflatable one-meter spherical antenna in Earth’s orbit. The inflatable antenna will be used to communicate to ground at ~50 Mbps and transmit HD video in real time. A second, identical camera is onboard and will be used to image and verify deployment of the inflatable antenna. A secondary goal of the mission will be to deploy a whip antenna to measure Earth’s ionosphere. The satellite operations are organized as three experiments:
The FreeFall Aerospace inflatable antenna system packages into less than 1.5U of the total 6U Cubesat volume and deploys in orbit to provide a lightweight one meter or larger aperture that can increase total data return by 10-100 times that of conventional technology, with less mass and power. Once in orbit, the FreeFall antenna will deploy using compressed gas to inflate a half aluminized, 0.5 meter Mylar sphere incorporating a proprietary feed system. Data including HD video and diagnostic information will be communicated to a new 6.1m ground station located at the UA’s Biosphere II. |
Sources | [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] |
Photo Sources | [1] [2] [3] [4] |
Keywords |
Last modified: 2022-12-29
Detailed CatSat entry in the Database
Full Nanosats Database (much more data)