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The NMSUSat Engineering Design Unit
(EDU) |
 NMSUSat Mission Logo |
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NMSUSat Program |
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The NMSU Satellite (NMSUSat) is being developed
as part of the Air Force University Nanosat Program (Nanosat-3).
The satellite design has a large amount of 3 Corner Satellite
heritage, especially in the communications system.
While the design was not chosen for flight as part
of the program, the Engineering Design Unit version of the satellite
was constructed with the help of 50 NMSU students between
2003 and 2005. The final design report is available here.
The faculty from the College
of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences developed
a nanosatellite Engineering Design Unit at New Mexico State University
(NMSU) that is called the NMSUSat as part of the University
Nanosatellite Program. This satellite was developed based
on the heritage of the current 3 Corner Satellite (3CS) mission
and the existing engineering and science capabilities present
on campus. The development of an entire satellite at NMSU
will enhance the engineering capabilities at NMSU. |
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Mission Statement
The mission objectives for the NMSUSat
program will cover three areas: science, technology development,
and educational development. The NMSUSat mission objectives
are
1.
The scientific objective for the NMSUSat mission is to perform
Near Ultra Violet (NUV) emission intensity measurements of the
earth’s upper atmosphere over the night side of the earth.
2.
The engineering objectives for the NMSUSat mission are to conduct
two types of experiments with the nanosat: communications and
energy storage. The communications experiment is to demonstrate
techniques for distributed data relaying over the Internet to
support autonomous satellite operations. The energy storage experiment
is to assess the operational characteristics of double layer
capacitors as compared with batteries for electrical energy storage
if these devices can be made space rated.
3.
The educational objectives for the NMSUSat mission are to assist
in the further development of the aerospace engineering concentration
area in the College of Engineering and to develop multi-disciplinary
capstone and design classes for students in engineering departments
and the engineering physics program. |
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Technology Demonstration
The experiment for the science component
of the NMSUSat mission is the acquisition of NUV emission intensity
measurements over the night side of the earth. Over the
orbiting mission duration, the satellite will construct a map
of the measurements as a function of time and location.
If the satellite stays on orbit long enough, variations in these
measurements may be determined.
The
experiments for the technology component cover telemetry data
recovery techniques and energy storage. The communications
experiment also includes demonstrating autonomous telemetry data
acquisition over geographically separated amateur radio ground
stations and then automatically relaying that data back to NMSU.
The energy storage experiment is to evaluate multi-layer capacitor
technology for satellite energy storage. |
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Student Involvement
Students
majoring in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Engineering
Physics, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and
English have been part of the NMSUSat team since it began
in 2003. Over the program lifetime, 48 students have been
involved in some form.
The
NMSUSat program has benefited the educational mission
within NMSU. The faculty in the Klipsch School of Electrical
and Computer Engineering are using the NMSUSat program as an
example of a major, interdisciplinary design program for the
senior design classes. The program has also been an integral
part of the Mechanical Engineering senior design classes as well.
With the NMSU Aerospace Program coming on line, it is expected
that the NMSUSat program will be a good example for the
new program as well.
EE and ME students working on the
assembly of the EDU. |
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Relevance to Air Force/NASA
technologies
- Advanced scientific detector:
Photomultiplier tube has integrated power control and signal
processing electronics with standard RS-232 interface to the
flight computer
- Nanosatellite subsystems: communications
system uses standard RS-232 interface to flight computer and
built on 3 Corner Satellite heritage with improved data throughput;
satellite bus, solar panel, and ground station designs are based
on 3CS designs with slight modifications.
- Data Standardization: using IP-based
protocols (Multicast Dissemination Protocol developed by NRL,
Secure Shell, Network Time Protocol, telnet, Secure Copy, and
Point-to-Point Protocol running with a Linux file system)
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- Satellite Electrical Configuration
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Assembling the EDU for the Flight
Competition Review, Reno January 2005  |
Team members attending the
Flight Competition Review, Reno January 2005 |
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