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How to Make a CubeSat

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Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#41

Post by Ephil012 »

syedkarim wrote: post #37
Ephil012 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other figures are correct. However, the cost to build cubesats are coming down rapidly. I work at a not for profit called isomer space which builds cubesats. We originally were looking at 50k-100k for ours, but there are a few open source projects now that provide design files to manufacture your own for way cheaper. For us, we are able to get the costs down to under 10k by doing it all in house. This is includin…

Who is offering a 1U for $20k? Is that to sun-sync, or one of the last-minute ISS specials?

I don't know if I am technically allowed to say since it was given to us on a contract. I don't think I can name them specifically until we do a joint press release announcing the mission. However, I will say that it was a startup that basically had a lot of VC money to subsidize. It was to sun sync orbit though. Also, they have increased prices for future launches to like 25k or 30k or something like that. Mainly because of they are trying to wean off of subsidizing they said.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#42

Post by Ephil012 »

bagels wrote: post #40
Ephil012 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we are actually adding imagery to our satellite so I think I can answer these pretty well. For question 1, I do think you could use it for astrophotography. You could probably capture pictures of the stars if you have stabilization on the CubeSat. However, the photos would probably be similar to the photos taken of space from the ISS. What I mean by this is you might be able to take photos of the stars, but it wou…

Direct communication with ground stations is usually impractical for continuous communication for a couple reasons: they're over subscribed, and there aren't any stations where your satellite spends a lot of time. Best bet is if starlink, oneweb, etc. provide a service for satellites to relay your data back.

Yeah that is also true. The CubeSats don't spend too much time over each ground station. You can technically get around this by swapping between ground stations and enable semi continuous communication, but it would require a ton of them to work well. Also, it wouldn't work over the ocean. There isn't really a way to partner with enough ground stations to get the needed coverage while over land. I don't think there are any ground station networks out there with enough coverage for this type of thing to be constantly swapping for near constant connectivity over land. We didn't actually need amazing connectivity. We were fine with just livestreaming occasionally, but the other issues I mentioned around data speed prevented it. I think if data speeds were better you could get live video temporarily (like 15 mins).

Also, for the satellite transmission via Starlink, I don't think Starlink / OneWeb offers that yet for CubeSats (might be wrong though). I do know Iridium allows for it though. However, as I mentioned earlier in the prev comment, the data speeds might suck still (could be wrong here too) and it costs a lot of money. I do think some ground stations would have wanted money too. We didn't actually need to livestream as it was just some fun PR trick. We ended up deciding it wasn't worth it in terms of cash / effort.

As far as over subscription, it depends. If you are using a public ground station network then its an issue. If you are partnered with no public ones then it's not as big of an issue. We were thinking of private ones only because public ones would not allow this kind of thing. So over subscription just didn't even matter for us really.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#43

Post by a_d »

Ephil012 wrote: post #35
a_d wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if one were to launch a swarm of cubesats with cameras on them looking away from Earth —- what would you imagine those cameras would see? (Let’s say cameras allow very long exposure shots?) Another way to ask my question is: can cubesat be used as “mini-Hubbles” to get closeups of planets/moon in the solar system or nearby stars? Second question (somewhat related to first) — can a cubesat stream video to a se…

So we are actually adding imagery to our satellite so I think I can answer these pretty well. For question 1, I do think you could use it for astrophotography. You could probably capture pictures of the stars if you have stabilization on the CubeSat. However, the photos would probably be similar to the photos taken of space from the ISS. What I mean by this is you might be able to take photos of the stars, but it wou…

wow! Thank you so much for a detailed response! I learned a lot from your comment.

If I may ask another question: do you think the CubeSat ‘form factor’ (10x10x10 cm-cube) can have enough propulsion (combined with some gravtiy-assist) to be able to get into an orbit around another planet or another moon in our solar system? Meaning, can a CubeSat be sent to .. say Titan, as a probe (say a ‘mini-Cassini’).

(Just curious to understand whether cheap ‘CubeSats’ can be used as tiny probes for the entire solar system)

Thank you!

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#44

Post by Ephil012 »

a_d wrote: post #43
Ephil012 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we are actually adding imagery to our satellite so I think I can answer these pretty well. For question 1, I do think you could use it for astrophotography. You could probably capture pictures of the stars if you have stabilization on the CubeSat. However, the photos would probably be similar to the photos taken of space from the ISS. What I mean by this is you might be able to take photos of the stars, but it wou…

wow! Thank you so much for a detailed response! I learned a lot from your comment. If I may ask another question: do you think the CubeSat ‘form factor’ (10x10x10 cm-cube) can have enough propulsion (combined with some gravtiy-assist) to be able to get into an orbit around another planet or another moon in our solar system? Meaning, can a CubeSat be sent to .. say Titan, as a probe (say a ‘mini-Cassini’). (Just curio…

There are CubeSats with various propulsion systems like ion thrusters and pulsed plasma thrusters in development. It's relatively new though iirc. These thrusters can last for an insanely long time. So maybe in theory it could reach a planet one day, but it would take ages. So in practice probably not practical and it just makes more sense to launch one from a rocket that is going to that planet.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#45

Post by ackbar03 »

Ephil012 wrote: post #21

One interesting development in the area of cubesats is that most teams are shifting towards open source designs. In the past, cubesats were mostly using old and expensive hardware (like the pumpkin board). Now a lot of teams are using open source designs like PyCubed and building the electronics themselves. As a result, the price to enter the cubesat space has dropped dramatically. This has enabled a bunch of univers…

This is great, I've been curious about this for a while, thanks for offering to answer questions!

> The solution some open source projects came up with was to just take components from Mouser and run their own radiation tests on it then choose the ones that fared good enough to be used in space. That way they can make satellite boards for way cheaper.

Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation tests / shock tests or whatever for them to be accepted for launch?

From what I've read researching this stuff, the sats themselves aren't necessarily difficult or expensive to build, but its because of this testing / component requirement that makes them expensive.

E.g., see the first comment on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8TSiKHZbC8

> I work in this industry and yes these things are seriously expensive but also the cost isn't necessarily due to the hardware being expensive. The cost comes from testing and verification. Most integrators and launch providers want detailed information concerning vibration testing, material certifications for outgassing, vacuum testing and burn in. A lot of the players in the sat industry can't really afford to mess this up so they want to make sure the one shot they do have works. All of this additional engineering and testing costs are what kills the affordability. Even if you can get away with doing this all yourself, either academically or otherwise, no launch provider is going to let you on a ride share without this work, which requires specific testing hardware and a lot of man hours... which coincidentally costs a lot of money.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#46

Post by jdiez17 »

ackbar03 wrote: post #45
Ephil012 wrote: post #21

One interesting development in the area of cubesats is that most teams are shifting towards open source designs. In the past, cubesats were mostly using old and expensive hardware (like the pumpkin board). Now a lot of teams are using open source designs like PyCubed and building the electronics themselves. As a result, the price to enter the cubesat space has dropped dramatically. This has enabled a bunch of univers…

This is great, I've been curious about this for a while, thanks for offering to answer questions! > The solution some open source projects came up with was to just take components from Mouser and run their own radiation tests on it then choose the ones that fared good enough to be used in space. That way they can make satellite boards for way cheaper. Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation test…

> Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation tests / shock tests or whatever for them to be accepted for launch?

The launch provider usually doesn't care about radiation tests. For CubeSats they mostly only want to see vibration test reports.

Now, you and your user(s) will want to make sure that the satellite will work for a certain time while in orbit. So you throw all the functional and environmental tests that you can reasonably perform at it. And indeed, that's where you spend a lot of money.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#47

Post by jdiez17 »

samhuk wrote: post #10

I'm unfamiliar with the innards of the cubesat industry, but one question I have had for a while is are there any players out there offering CaaS (Cubesat as a Service)? E.g. A company sends up a bunch of cubesats, each with a variety of instrument suites, and then essentially timeshares them on some web platform.

I have to give a shoutout to my friends literally down the street who do this: German Orbital Systems [1] + EXOLAUNCH [2].

Then there's also some other companies who make the satellite bus and other parts for CubeSats like GOMspace [3] and NanoAvionics [4] (it looks like they have started doing launch and mission ops as well).

[1] https://www.orbitalsystems.de/

[2] https://exolaunch.com/

[3] https://gomspace.com/home.aspx

[4] https://nanoavionics.com/

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#48

Post by naavis »

ackbar03 wrote: post #45
Ephil012 wrote: post #21

One interesting development in the area of cubesats is that most teams are shifting towards open source designs. In the past, cubesats were mostly using old and expensive hardware (like the pumpkin board). Now a lot of teams are using open source designs like PyCubed and building the electronics themselves. As a result, the price to enter the cubesat space has dropped dramatically. This has enabled a bunch of univers…

This is great, I've been curious about this for a while, thanks for offering to answer questions! > The solution some open source projects came up with was to just take components from Mouser and run their own radiation tests on it then choose the ones that fared good enough to be used in space. That way they can make satellite boards for way cheaper. Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation test…

> Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation tests / shock tests or whatever for them to be accepted for launch?

I guess the launch provider doesn't care whether your satellite will actually work and survive in orbit. They just don't want it to break into pieces during launch and damage the rest of the payload. So they most likely just want vibration tests.

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#49

Post by carrozo »

Ephil012 wrote: post #21

One interesting development in the area of cubesats is that most teams are shifting towards open source designs. In the past, cubesats were mostly using old and expensive hardware (like the pumpkin board). Now a lot of teams are using open source designs like PyCubed and building the electronics themselves. As a result, the price to enter the cubesat space has dropped dramatically. This has enabled a bunch of univers…

Hi there! What kind of photographic resolution of the earth’s surface is possible given the cubesat’s small size?

Re: How to Make a CubeSat

#50

Post by Ephil012 »

ackbar03 wrote: post #45
Ephil012 wrote: post #21

One interesting development in the area of cubesats is that most teams are shifting towards open source designs. In the past, cubesats were mostly using old and expensive hardware (like the pumpkin board). Now a lot of teams are using open source designs like PyCubed and building the electronics themselves. As a result, the price to enter the cubesat space has dropped dramatically. This has enabled a bunch of univers…

This is great, I've been curious about this for a while, thanks for offering to answer questions! > The solution some open source projects came up with was to just take components from Mouser and run their own radiation tests on it then choose the ones that fared good enough to be used in space. That way they can make satellite boards for way cheaper. Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation test…

Pretty much what the other commenters said. Nobody cares whether your cubesat lives or dies in orbit. However, the radiation tests done on these open source boards have been quite extensive and there are a bunch of cubesats in orbit with these boards right now. They haven’t died from radiation so it’s generally assumed it’s fine. Even NASA has a project using consumer hardware in orbit (KickSat-2). Anyhow, generally you only need to pass the “mechanical” tests like vibration, vacuum, outgassing, etc. A lot of people do radiation testing to ensure that their satellite won’t die in orbit, but as a whole these open source boards like PyCubed pass them enough where you can be sure you’ll get at least a decent amount of time out of it.

If you’re curious about the testing procedure here is a paper one open source project published about it. It’s by no means a comprehensive paper on testing but it gives a general idea. https://roboticexplorationlab.org/papers/PyCubed-SmallSat.pd...

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