“A sparrow has the same number of internal organs as an ostrich,” joked Xinlin Li, professor at University of Colorado, Boulder’s department of aerospace engineering sciences, comparing the satellite of the $686,000,000 NASA project, the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, to his own team’s low-cost, compact satellite, part of the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE). On Friday, September 26, 2014, Li spoke at the Dartmouth’s Physics and Astronomy Colloquium on the success of his tiny satellite and his plans to tackle even bigger (but still miniature) projects.
Developed by a team of students at CU Boulder with the assistance of Li and professionals from the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics, the CSSWE spacecraft is a CubeSat, a type of miniaturized satellite. Launched in September of 2012, it is only 10 cm x 10 cm x 30 cm, comparable to the size of a football.
Kept at a relatively low budget, innovation and cost efficiency were critical in building the CubeSat. Students were taught the acronym K.I.S.S., or “Keep It Simple Student,” an ideal reflected in the components of the satellite. The passive altitude control system is simply a series of lightweight magnets, controlling the satellite’s altitude using Earth’s magnetic field. The antenna is made of commercially bought measuring tape, kept coiled by cheap fishing line. While this may not sound like standard space hardware, comparing data shows that the resourceful use of common household items is just as effective as the NASA-approved equivalent.
A rendering of what the Cubesat might look like.
The project broke new ground by comparing measurements of high-energy protons and electrons collected by the CubeSat and balloons in the Earth’s atmosphere. CSSWE was the first project in which satellites and balloons were used in conjunction to measure this effect. Calculating the difference in high-energy particles in space and in the atmosphere allows Li and his team to quantify the protective effects of the Earth’s ionosphere against potentially dangerous high-energy particles.
Li’s next student-designed project is the Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS). Slightly more advanced than the CSSWE and supported by NASA funding, MinXSS will be launched from the International Space Station next year to measure the x-ray radiation emitted by the sun. Looking into the future, Li described the L5 Solar Wind and Eruptive Event Probe (SWEEP). While the project is still in the proposal stage, the satellite will be able to determine if a solar event, such as a coronal mass ejection, will reach the Earth, measuring the magnitude of the event four and a half days before it reaches the Earth.
The CubeSat movement is not isolated at CU Boulder. Universities everywhere have been pursuing these projects, allowing an unprecedented amount of student participation in space research. Not only has the CubeSat made astronomical research easier and more affordable, it has also brought hands-on opportunities to students at universities. Over 65 undergraduates and graduates were able to work on CSSWE as part of a class called Space Hardware Design. Despite the fact that over 50% of the CubeSats end up failing, the field experience that CubeSat research offers to students is priceless, and, in a time of budget cuts to pure science, cost-efficient space research is essential.
Sources:
1. “Radiation Belt Storm Probes Launch.” NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. <http://www.nasa.gov/>.