Session
Technical Session VII:University Student Competition
Abstract
The BARNACLE micro-satellite is an extremely simple low-cost space vehicle for the characterization of electronic instruments in space. The satellite was developed in less than one year by a group of seven undergraduate engineering students with no previous spacecraft design experience. The satellite was built for under $2,000 of the students own money with most of the hardware donated by industry and university sponsors. The craft includes a Motorola 68HC11 microprocessor-based subsystem for system control, with a logic system to back up the processor in the case of failure. Power is regulated by high-efficiency switching mode regulators in the power subsystem. Communications between the craft and ground stations is handled by the communications subsystems providing full-duplex AFSK communications at 1200 baud. The instruments are interfaced to the control core logic and microprocessor through the sensor interface subsystem. After testing, the satellite will be launched in a tube configuration aboard a non-orbital sounding rocket in August 1998. A cube configuration of the same satellite is being considered for an orbital launch in 1999.
Smaller than Small, Faster than Fast, Cheaper than Cheap: The BARNACLE Satellite Project
The BARNACLE micro-satellite is an extremely simple low-cost space vehicle for the characterization of electronic instruments in space. The satellite was developed in less than one year by a group of seven undergraduate engineering students with no previous spacecraft design experience. The satellite was built for under $2,000 of the students own money with most of the hardware donated by industry and university sponsors. The craft includes a Motorola 68HC11 microprocessor-based subsystem for system control, with a logic system to back up the processor in the case of failure. Power is regulated by high-efficiency switching mode regulators in the power subsystem. Communications between the craft and ground stations is handled by the communications subsystems providing full-duplex AFSK communications at 1200 baud. The instruments are interfaced to the control core logic and microprocessor through the sensor interface subsystem. After testing, the satellite will be launched in a tube configuration aboard a non-orbital sounding rocket in August 1998. A cube configuration of the same satellite is being considered for an orbital launch in 1999.
