A cubesat, at home!, Leicester, UK Options

[djellison]

Just found out about this, totally by accident, at the BAUT forum!

http://cubesat.wikidot.com/

I will endeavour to find out more, and see if there's anything I can do to help (which will be nothing, probably)

[SpiderMonkey]

The project has benefited from the paid work done during the summer break. Substantial progress has been made on several subsystems, and this combined with an influx of new freshers has given me fresh enthusiasm for the mission (I was previously having doubts, for long and complicated reasons). We are making tentative steps

Our main issue right now is the payload. On OBDH we are currently working out an automated power up routine for a a subsystem that requires high voltages applied very carefully, and has to be quickly shut off if (or perhaps when) it shows signs of melting. The payload team themselves are working on getting the thing small enough to fit in the cubesat (and although like I said I don't know much, the high voltages I was talking about are giving some headaches - we need a transformer somewhere and our mass and volume budget doesn't allow for a big stonking lump of iron)

I have presented Dougs offer of media-related help to the management, they are of course interested but right now are more focused on technical issues. Nobody is asking to do a story about us at this very minute anyway so having good animations isn't yet necessary.

We hope to deliver by summer next year, for launch some months afterwards. The management seem to have begun looking into getting us a space on a launcher, but of course once we book it we are locked into our delivery date and that already involves some quite tight deadlines. Much hard work ahead.