Session
Technical Session XIII:Education
Abstract
Galassia is the first cubesat built by undergraduate students at the National University of Singapore (NUS) within the education curriculum of the Design Centric Program (DCP). The 2U cubesat carries two primary mission payloads and one secondary mission payload. The primary payloads are the TEC (Total Electron Content) payload and the SPEQS (Small Photon Entangling Quantum System) payload. The secondary payload is an active ADCS (Attitude Determination and Control) module built by students. This cubesat project was developed in an accelerated 2 model philosophy while care has been taken and formulated for its development. In particular, a neat and systematic assembly process was formulated for the CubeSat and this had led to its integration into a Flight Model in July 2015.
This flight model of Galassia was then subject to environment tests at a clean room facilities in Singapore to ensure it has passed the environment test requirements (random vibration, sinusoidal vibration and thermal cycling) prior to its acceptance for flight and launch in with the PSLV (Polar-Satellite Launch Vehicle) C29 from ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization). The launch took place on 16 Dec 2015 (2030 Hours Singapore Time) and Galassia was inserted into a near-equatorial orbit (NeqO) at 550km altitude with 15 degrees inclination angle. The ground communication with Galassia was established in the following orbit (16 Dec 2015, 2218 Hours Singapore Time).
This project has given the students (total about 35) hands-on experience in designing various aspects of the CubeSat and see to it that it got integrated successfully for test, launch and eventual operations. This paper will provide a description of some of the unique experiences the team has made, especially in the systems engineering approach in ensuring a robust design is engineered for the successful launch and operations of Galassia.
Design, AIT, Launch & Early-Operations of Galassia Nano-Satellite
Galassia is the first cubesat built by undergraduate students at the National University of Singapore (NUS) within the education curriculum of the Design Centric Program (DCP). The 2U cubesat carries two primary mission payloads and one secondary mission payload. The primary payloads are the TEC (Total Electron Content) payload and the SPEQS (Small Photon Entangling Quantum System) payload. The secondary payload is an active ADCS (Attitude Determination and Control) module built by students. This cubesat project was developed in an accelerated 2 model philosophy while care has been taken and formulated for its development. In particular, a neat and systematic assembly process was formulated for the CubeSat and this had led to its integration into a Flight Model in July 2015.
This flight model of Galassia was then subject to environment tests at a clean room facilities in Singapore to ensure it has passed the environment test requirements (random vibration, sinusoidal vibration and thermal cycling) prior to its acceptance for flight and launch in with the PSLV (Polar-Satellite Launch Vehicle) C29 from ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization). The launch took place on 16 Dec 2015 (2030 Hours Singapore Time) and Galassia was inserted into a near-equatorial orbit (NeqO) at 550km altitude with 15 degrees inclination angle. The ground communication with Galassia was established in the following orbit (16 Dec 2015, 2218 Hours Singapore Time).
This project has given the students (total about 35) hands-on experience in designing various aspects of the CubeSat and see to it that it got integrated successfully for test, launch and eventual operations. This paper will provide a description of some of the unique experiences the team has made, especially in the systems engineering approach in ensuring a robust design is engineered for the successful launch and operations of Galassia.
