[FPSPACE] FW: Cornell Chronicle: CU's satellite system is a finalist for launch

[LARRY KLAES]

>From: Cornell Chronicle Online <cunews at cornell.edu>
>Reply-To: Cornell Chronicle Online <cunews at cornell.edu>
>To: CUNEWS-PHYSICAL_SCIENCE-L at cornell.edu, CUNEWS-CAMPUS-L at cornell.edu, 
>CUNEWS-SCIENCE-L at cornell.edu
>Subject: Cornell Chronicle: CU's satellite system is a finalist for launch
>Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 17:07:36 -0400
>
>Chronicle Online e-News
>
>Cornell's student-built satellite system is one of three finalists ready 
>for launch from the Marshall Islands in June
>http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/April08/student.satellite.html
>
>April 2, 2008
>
>Cornell's CUSat -- a student-built, identical-twin satellite system 
>designed to separate in orbit so that one can obtain 3-D images of the 
>other -- is one of the three finalists for a June launch from the SpaceX 
>launch complex in the Central Pacific Marshall Islands.
>
>Cornell has built the pair of satellites with funding from the Air Force's 
>University Nanosatellite Program. If chosen from among the finalists, CUSat 
>will be the first spacecraft launched by the U.S. Department of Defense's 
>newly formed Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office. ORS's Jumpstart 
>mission aims to demonstrate the ability to rapidly integrate and execute a 
>mission, from initial call-up to launch. The decision to send the Cornell 
>satellite, or one of the two other finalists -- the Air Force Research 
>Laboratory's Plug and Play satellite with multiple payloads or SpaceDev's 
>Trailblazer -- will be made before the scheduled SpaceX flight readiness 
>review about two weeks before launch.
>
>Space Exploration Technologies Corp. will carry the first Jumpstart mission 
>payload aboard the Falcon 1 Flight 003 vehicle.
>
>Cornell's CUSat, which was chosen in March 2007 as the winner among 11 
>entries in the Air Force program's Nanosat-4 competition, sponsored by the 
>U.S. Air Force and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 
>is two identical satellites built into a hexagonal package weighing about 
>90 pounds. Once in orbit, the two satellites will separate and navigate 
>around each other about 10 yards apart. Using highly refined global 
>positioning system measurements, one satellite will relay pictures of the 
>other to the Mission Control Center in Ithaca, where a 3-D virtual model of 
>the target satellite will then be constructed. Such a system could be used 
>to diagnose problems with future spacecraft, including examination of tiles 
>on the space shuttle. Cornell's satellite was chosen based on student 
>participation, the flight-worthiness of the design and relevance of the 
>mission to the Air Force.
>
>Mason Peck, a Cornell assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace 
>engineering, is the principal investigator for the project and the faculty 
>adviser to the student team. Mark Psiaki, associate professor of mechanical 
>and aerospace engineering, and his Ph.D. student, Shan Mohiuddin, developed 
>algorithms for CUSat that provide accuracy down to a fraction of an inch. 
>Peck credits Mark Campbell, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace 
>engineering, with the design of the satellite's thrusters, which burn solid 
>Teflon, a much safer system than compressed gas or combustible propellant. 
>Alumnus Kris Young, M.Eng. '07, was the student program manager during the 
>flight competition review. Rob Zimmerman, M.Eng. '08, now leads the team.
>
>About 80 students have worked on the project, but about 225 have been 
>involved since 2005 when CUSat began.
>
>--
>
>
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