School of Engineering News
Undergraduate engineers selected by European Space Agency to launch CubeSat in rocket
Fourth year undergraduate engineering students have successfully bid to have their CubeSat launched on a rocket by the European Space Agency. Students from the Warwick University Satellite Team (WUSAT) will send equipment to analyse planets and potential exoplanets, which may have life-sustaining atmospheric environments.
What the CubeSat will contain
The experimental payload that the CubeSat will house is concerned with Solar Spectroscopy. The aim is to measure the amount of light absorbed by Sodium and O2 in our atmosphere. As the satellite falls it will measure the absorption ratio of each in comparison to the distance that light has travelled from the sun through our atmosphere which is proportional to the number of those particles that have interacted with the light. This is done by measuring the intensity of light falling on the satellite through four pass filters, a pair each for Sodium and O2.
The group project forms an integral part of the students’ MEng degree course and has already produced a prototype and conducted a successful balloon launch in April 2013.
Work has now begun on developing a new CubeSat for 2015. The team are currently developing a chassis and insulation to protect components from impacts and environment, creating an optical system to gather solar spectrum data and produce electronic system for data capture and to communicate data to ground station.
The team are preparing for a preliminary design review meeting in Kiruna, Sweden during March 2014. Here they will present their designs to two panels of space industry experts, and once approved, will get their flight ticket to launch in March/April 2015 on an ESA Rexus rocket. A further test launch using a second independent balloon will also be conducted before the final launch.
The WUSAT team 2013/14 are (left to right): Mark Dooner (PhD support), Sarah Iddles (Mechanical Engineering), Oli Vavasour (Electronic Engineering), Jess Lomath (Mechanical Engineering), Leo Kodners (Electronic Engineering), Oli Beard (Electronic Engineering), Bill Crofts (Project Director) and Matti Konsala (Systems Engineering).