Session
Session V: Upcoming Missions
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
Eye-Sat will observe the Zodiacal light, the Sun light scattered by interplanetary dust. It is a diffuse and faint white glow. Equipped with its small home-made telescope, this 3U CubeSat will measure the zodiacal light’s intensity and linear polarization ratio. The payload’s optics has a focal length of 50 mm and a diameter of 25 mm for a field of view of +/- 6.5°. Two rotating wheels bear spectral and polarizing filters. For one year Eye-Sat will produce more than 500 GB of data which will be downloaded to the ground thanks to a high data rate X-band link. Moreover, scientific objectives impose severe requirements on the attitude determination and control system such as a 0.25° 3-axis pointing accuracy. To fulfil these requirements, Eye-Sat comprises a star tracker and four reaction wheels.
Eye-sat will also welcome new technologies on board to demonstrate their applicability in space environment and to test their in-orbit performances:
- C&DH module will combine a dual-core ARM9 microprocessor (CPU frequency up to 1GHz) and a FPGA
- Flight software will be based on Time and Space Partitioning technology
- S-band TTC transceiver
- X-band transmitter for scientific data
- Solar panels will be deployed by self-blocking and self-deployable composite hinges
- Hold-on and Release Mechanisms based on the thermal knife concept
- 3DPlus camera with a CMOS detector from CMOSIS
- Innovative black coating from Cilas
Eye-Sat is a Student CubeSat which belongs to JANUS, a CNES’ program that supports French Universities in developing their CubeSat projects. The specificity of Eye-Sat is that it has been developed within the French Space Agency since 2012, with more than 200 students involved.
After passing a successful qualification review before a board of CNES agents in October 2018, the project team is now in the Assembling, Integration and Validation phase with the flight model. Launch is due on October/November 2019, on a Soyouz rocket from French Guyana, with COSMOS Sky-Med from the Italian Space Agency and Cheops from the European Space Agency.
Eye-Sat: A 3U Student CubeSat from CNES Packed with Technology
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Eye-Sat will observe the Zodiacal light, the Sun light scattered by interplanetary dust. It is a diffuse and faint white glow. Equipped with its small home-made telescope, this 3U CubeSat will measure the zodiacal light’s intensity and linear polarization ratio. The payload’s optics has a focal length of 50 mm and a diameter of 25 mm for a field of view of +/- 6.5°. Two rotating wheels bear spectral and polarizing filters. For one year Eye-Sat will produce more than 500 GB of data which will be downloaded to the ground thanks to a high data rate X-band link. Moreover, scientific objectives impose severe requirements on the attitude determination and control system such as a 0.25° 3-axis pointing accuracy. To fulfil these requirements, Eye-Sat comprises a star tracker and four reaction wheels.
Eye-sat will also welcome new technologies on board to demonstrate their applicability in space environment and to test their in-orbit performances:
- C&DH module will combine a dual-core ARM9 microprocessor (CPU frequency up to 1GHz) and a FPGA
- Flight software will be based on Time and Space Partitioning technology
- S-band TTC transceiver
- X-band transmitter for scientific data
- Solar panels will be deployed by self-blocking and self-deployable composite hinges
- Hold-on and Release Mechanisms based on the thermal knife concept
- 3DPlus camera with a CMOS detector from CMOSIS
- Innovative black coating from Cilas
Eye-Sat is a Student CubeSat which belongs to JANUS, a CNES’ program that supports French Universities in developing their CubeSat projects. The specificity of Eye-Sat is that it has been developed within the French Space Agency since 2012, with more than 200 students involved.
After passing a successful qualification review before a board of CNES agents in October 2018, the project team is now in the Assembling, Integration and Validation phase with the flight model. Launch is due on October/November 2019, on a Soyouz rocket from French Guyana, with COSMOS Sky-Med from the Italian Space Agency and Cheops from the European Space Agency.
