Smoke rises within the transparent walls of the cleanroom down in the basement of Howe Hall as the final solar cells are soldered to the student-designed outer panels of CySAT-1. These solar cells are just some of the final touches being added to the Cyclone Satellite before it continues its journey to Low Earth Orbit. These final touches have both past and present students involved in the project elated to see the completion of this project and the start of designing the next iteration for Cyclone Satellite.
CySAT stands for Cyclone Satellite, the first fully student-designed and integrated CubeSat project within Iowa. The mission planning stage began six or seven years ago. It dramatically took off when the project started working with NASA and Nanoracks. These two companies have consistently worked with CySAT throughout the last three years of the project. Biweekly meetings are held with both of them to discuss better and more efficient processes in completing tasks.
When creating the satellite payload, the payload incorporates a few different systems that both the software and hardware teams worked on. One of the CySAT members, Alexis Aurandt, worked on the communication protocol to relay the soil moisture data from the loud noise amplifiers, or LNAs. Currently, members are working on the ground station, which is the last step in allowing the soil moisture data to be relayed back to earth.
Other systems within the payload include the onboard computer (OBC), electrical power system (EPS), attitude determination and control system (ADCS), and the ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio. The onboard computer is the brain of the satellite and sends commands to the other subsystems, while the EPS is where all the power comes from to engage the payload. The ADCS system allows the CubeSat to orient itself to the earth and uses the sun for censoring, and the UHF radio allows the satellite to communicate with the ground station in Howe Hall. The subsystems are connected through a PC-104 header and work together to allow the satellite to efficiently do its job. The EPS needs a new battery or recertify the battery to finish the hardware side of the project.
Thompson is currently working with capacity testing on the battery: essentially, seeing the age of the battery. This battery has been in use for three years, which places it close to its approved lifetime. This testing is done in the cleanroom (Cardinal Space Lab). These tests include final integrations, finishing work, and working on the supersensitive materials.
Iowa State Students are encouraged to join CySAT and other Make to Innovate projects to strengthen their skills in engineering. Thompson reviewed the requirements for students coming into CySAT. He recommends that students wait until after their first semester before throwing themselves in. The more educated a student becomes, the more responsibilities they can take on. He claimed that it might come off intimidating to some but is inclusive for all branches of Engineering. Kelly was hopeful that all types of engineers would start to join. While joining can give them technical elective credit, real-world knowledge and experience can benefit students through college and their careers.
Students can get the hands-on experience that is needed and desired by future employers following their graduation. The equipment provided is meant to teach and to be experimented with. While students do want to be careful since everything is highly specialized, Christine Nelson, the program coordinator for Make to Innovate, says, “Due to the generosity of external donors, M2I can provide high quality and highly specific equipment to further the education of our students that they would otherwise not have access to.”