Lunchsat accepted for IAC 2010

Following the submission of their abstracts in March, three members of the Lunchsat team have been invited to write their papers and present at the International Astronautical Congress in Prague.

The abstracts were written and submitted individually by Nick Fishwick (Project Management), Jason Stones (Media) and Tom Stuttard (Systems, Power), who have been chosen to attend the IAC conference for this year, to be held in Prague from 27 September to 1 October.

The abstracts that secured a place at the Congress for the three successful applicants follow below.

"LunchSat", A Training Programme for Young Professionals in EADS Astrium to Build a Nano-Satellite

Nick Fishwick

The paper by Nick Fishwick, "LunchSat, a training programme for young professionals in EADS Astrium to build a nano-satellite", has been selected for presentation at the Space Education and Outreach Symposium (E1) during the seventh session, "Space Workforce Development: Challenges and Opportunities". This session will focus on challenges, opportunities and innovative solutions for attracting, improving and retaining the future and current global space workforce.

"The “LunchSat” training programme was started in the UK satellites division of EADS Astrium to provide young professionals at the start of their career the opportunity to design, build and test their own nano-satellite. The activity is performed alongside their day-to-day jobs and it delivers a complete overview of the whole process of making satellites. It is a unique programme within space industry prime contractors for further dynamic education of new entrants to the space industry, which promotes both links to universities as payload providers and contributes to the award winning Astrium outreach programme. The LunchSat project clearly increases the appeal of Astrium and the space industry to graduates as it provides early experience of real flight hardware and the critical problem solving required to launch and operate a satellite, which can then be applied to other larger missions.

"LunchSat is a three unit Cube-Sat, based on the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies successful CanX-2 mission. The satellite is scheduled to be flight ready in 2012 and it is envisaged that it will piggy-back with a large commercial Astrium satellite. LunchSat has a monochrome CMOS imager and other payloads are being currently selected. The platform will be used as a technology demonstrator for Astrium internal developments and has space reserved for science experiments from UK universities. Two ground stations have been commissioned at both the Portsmouth and Stevenage Astrium UK sites which will be used to control the satellite. The ground stations can also be used for Astrium in-orbit satellite operator training and provide outreach opportunities to local school children.

"LunchSat fulfils its programmatic objectives by providing the team members with a complete understanding of the design, development and implementation cycle of a complete satellite programme within a short timescale, as well as letting them work with real hardware and test constraints. Building a Cube-Sat within a large space prime contractor has allowed for use of a wide range of facilities and access to senior engineers’ experience. The programme also lets the young professionals take responsibility for managing entire satellite systems many years before they would normally do so during their careers.

"This paper discusses the implementation, logistics and educational benefits of the Astrium “LunchSat“ training programme for young professionals starting their careers in space. Such a programme could be applied to other space prime contractors to facilitate the training of the next generation of senior space engineers."

The Potential of Innovative Outreach from Cube-Sat Programmes
Jason Stones

Session chairs Yolanda Berenguer of UNESCO and Olga Zhdanovich of ESA selected the paper by Jason Stones, "The Potential of Innovative Outreach from Cube-Sat Programmes", for inclusion and presentation at the Space Education and Outreach Symposium (E1) during the third session, "Calling Planet Earth: Space Outreach to the General Public". It will be the 13th paper to be presented on Wednesday 29 September at 15:15, alongside other presentations by space industry professionals including representatives from the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.

"This paper reflects the heritage, progress and ambitions of LunchSat, a graduate training programme of EADS Astrium, in its capacity to serve as a valuable demonstrator of ongoing Cube-Sat projects for the benefit of outreach and public awareness of space.

"LunchSat provides graduate training through a nano-satellite project, allowing its members to gain experience in how satellites are developed. Appreciation of a whole satellite project is possible due to the scaled down development associated with nano-satellites in terms of reduced size, costs and overhead.

"The deployment of LunchSat outreach strategies is resulting in tangible benefits for both the project and the public. For example, visibility of the LunchSat project through websites and social networking on the Internet is allowing a propagation of information to external communities through intermediaries and enthusiasts. This has strengthened relationships with online suppliers, reconnected previous project members and is working to connect project expertise and inspire the interested public.

"The UK Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network (STEMNET) is a key asset to LunchSat outreach. Astrium has a strong community of STEM ambassadors distributed across its pan-European workforce, enabling the company to effectively promote the need for space exploration and communicate down-to-Earth advantages of space for the benefit of society, in establishments across borders. Through this scheme LunchSat has received the praise of politicians and representatives from across industry, including UKspace, the trade association for the British space sector. Recognition at these levels is critical if such space projects are to benefit from future budget allocations.

"Project members have completed training in amateur radio to link with the nano-satellite in orbit from ground stations post-launch; such communication could well extend outreach to the International Space Station. Schoolchildren would be able to interview the astronauts on-board the ISS via LunchSat infrastructure, as part of a possible outreach initiative with ARISS. Future outreach envisages school visits and workshop tours, university talks to connect the project with the campus outreach initiatives of Astrium, and exposure through TV, radio and printed media.

"The importance of outreach is being recognised. Projects such as LunchSat, and the outreach initiatives that follow, could therefore prove a valuable catalyst in the realisation of this future vision to promote space for human benefit and exploration."

Systems Engineering, Operations and Payload Interfacing in Cube-Sats

Tom Stuttard

The paper by Tom Stuttard, "Systems Engineering, Operations and Payload Interfacing in Cube-Sats", has also been selected for presentation at the 2010 Congress. His paper will feature at the Small Satellite Missions Symposium (B4) during the sixth session, "Design and Technology for Nano-Sats and Cube-Sats".

"Cube-Sats provide a considerable challenge to systems engineering, with minimal power and mass constraints being carefully managed to provide maximum scientific gain. This paper outlines the particular considerations and difficulties in the systems engineering requirements of the “LunchSat project”, a Cube-Sat mission currently being designed by members of the graduate scheme at EADS Astrium UK. Comparisons to the systems engineering solutions implemented in other Cube-Sat missions are also drawn.

"One challenge of the systems engineering of the LunchSat described here involves the successful overseeing of concurrent and inter-dependent design and analysis work in varying subsystems. The co-investigation of multiple and significantly differing attitude control systems in particular strongly drives the interfacing to other systems, including thermal analysis and payload operation. Uncertainty in the solar cell capabilities are another factor, which limit the understanding of the potential operation of power-hungry subsystems such as communications. In addition to internal interfacing within the project, focus is given to the challenge of producing comprehensive payload interfacing requirements to potential external suppliers. The definition of an accurate but flexible interface during a stage where many subsystems are still undergoing rapid and significant development has been one of the major recent undertakings of the systems engineering team.

"The related problem of operations under these subsystem constraints is also presented. The development of the project without a clear definition of the available launch options requires careful planning and contingency to enable successful operation of the satellite in various orbits and attitudes with little or no technical changes to the LunchSat design. The steps taken in this field are described, with reference to the systems engineering decisions made to implement this flexibility.

"Following the descriptions of these technical activities, an overview of the upcoming challenges for the LunchSat systems engineering is presented with reference to the envisaged solutions. Finally, a mention is made of the benefits gained from this systems engineering work in terms of both professional development and application to larger space craft."

The lucky three are proud to be presenting Lunchsat to the global space community on behalf of the team and Astrium. They will spend the week at IAC 2010 -- the largest conference of the international space calendar -- ahead of further plans to unveil the microsatellite in Winchester, as part of the Astrium contribution to World Space Week celebrations at the start of October.

In the meantime, visit the IAC 2010 conference website for more details of the Technical Programme for the week. Watch this space for all the latest from Prague!

Concluding another successful year of Lunchsat

A successful End-of-Year Management Review has concluded progress on the Lunchsat project for the year 2009-10.

The Management Review is an annual opportunity for the Lunchsat team to express the achievement made on the project to senior management including Pat Wood, the Chief Technical Officer of Astrium Satellites.

Project lead Nick Fishwick has thanked the entire Lunchsat team following a successful Management Review, which saw senior Astrium managers Pat Wood, Nick Chesher and Bob Baldwin, along with the line managers of some of the team members, attend a summary of what has been achieved over the last year.

The networking event was held in the Stevenage Viewing Gallery; the presentation was delivered by Nick alongside Chris Lord (Communications) and Natasha Pushkin (Thermal), who provided overviews of their respective subsystems and also told of their experiences of working on the Lunchsat initiative.

In an open email sent to the team, Nick has thanked 'everyone who has contributed to the project this year, a lot has been achieved thanks to all your efforts'.

"Highlights include the passive ADCS trade-off, the solar array power testing, the Portsmouth Groundstation installation and radio licences and the increased characterisation of the OBC and Communications chain.

"We had some great comments, ideas and news from Pat Wood and other managers from the review [...] there are still some focused tasks which need to be worked on in the coming weeks before the new LunchSat year restarts in October with the new graduate intake. I will be talking to sub-systems individually about these in the next few weeks."

Astrium managers reflected on the achievements made and offered valuable advice to the team following the session.

Summary of feedback

In acknowledgement that 'finding a good payload is essential to getting a launch', a recommendation was made by Pat Wood to research a new L-band payload as an option, particularly as funding may be available from a satellite operator such as Inmarsat. Pat was also interested in the potential for internal R&D and the funding mechanisms that would support the development of such payloads.

Nick Chesher provided additional input, suggesting that we can look to Astrium Space Transportation, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) for support with launchers and payloads. The fact that SSTL have begun their own cubesat training programme after witnessing the success of Lunchsat is fantastic news.

Nick concluded his congratulations by looking ahead: "The logistics of next year and how the current team will change with the new graduate intake will also be assessed and you will all hear about the plans for next LunchSat year soon."

So watch this space...

Good impressions follow a successful Systems Review

Project lead Nick Fishwick has thanked the Lunchsat team for the work that has been achieved in the run-up to the Systems Review held today, and is pleased the team has 'been able to show real progress for the year'.

Nick began the review with an introduction to the project, before handing over to Graham Johnson (Systems) who has recently provided input as subsystem supervisor for the new Mission and Subsystems Requirements document and as such, gave insight into the mission objectives for the review. These were followed up with a detailed run-through of progress made in the ADCS, Thermal, Power and Mechanical subsystems.

This continued into the next hour, with Tom Stuttard (Systems, Power) providing an overview of the new Operations subsystem before the work achieved with the On-Board Computer (OBC), Communications, Imager and Groundstations was described. Tim Mead (Power) concluded the technical breakdown of achievements made with his overview of the payload. The experts issued valuable guidance to the team, providing feedback of the session and offering their advice on how the subsystems should progress into the next year as development on the microsatellite continues.

Also in attendance amongst the experts were project champions Ronan Wall and Neil Dunbar, who both expressed their positive impressions of the project -- in particular, on the progress made with power testing.

In the meantime, work continues to conclude subsystem documentation ahead of the Management Review to be held next month, to which senior management will be invited for a debrief on the progress made in the past year.

Ideas fit for a payload

The final formal afternoon session for Lunchsat this year, scheduled to be held tomorrow, is set to take a departure from the usual format -- as members of the team begin to generate ideas for a new payload.

In an unprecedented brainstorming session for the project, team members from the systems and operations subsystems will be developing novel ideas for a new payload for Lunchsat, in an attempt to distinguish the project from the cubesats that have gone before.

Tomorrow's meeting will begin with a general discussion and subsystem roundup, to identify outstanding work in the usual afternoon session format. This is to be followed by the payload brainstorming session, set to last up to an hour, before a briefing of the Systems Review format and summary meeting conclude the afternoon session.

The imager currently forms the primary payload for Lunchsat, although the CanX-2 chassis, upon which the cubesat is based, has the volume to accommodate additional flight hardware. As such, there is a need to research options for additional instrumentation, within the constraints of physical volume and cost. This is of particular importance from a launch perspective, as the European Space Agency selects to financially assist the launch of missions based on the scientific merit of their payloads.

As such, further research into payload options could derive from in-house research and development, or assistance from external sources via collaboration as part of the wider Cubesat Research Network (CRN). Over the longer-term, it is anticipated that payload design and development is to be realised internally, within the Lunchsat team.

At present, the current imager will be responsible for accomplishing the main objective of Lunchsat -- to provide colour images of the Earth from low-Earth orbit for the assessment of weather conditions at a resolution reasonable enough to show basic topographical features. Reflecting the capability of modern meteorological satellites, one option to extend the payload toolkit of Lunchsat would be to install sensors and instrumentation to monitor and track the weather conditions of Earth and the immediate space environment. The main challenge remains however -- to achieve such an extension of functionality while keeping to the tight cost constraints realistic for a microsatellite.

Other project work planned for the final afternoon session of the year include the completion of subsystem summary documentation, the updating of work package descriptions to assist the handover from the current team to the incoming graduate intake, and the conclusion of any other outstanding issues.

For more information on the results of the research into payload options, refer to the Payload section of the Lunchsat website.

Mission requirements document finalised

The Lunchsat team has completed work on the final draft of the Mission and Subsystems Requirements document, summarising the requirements of the project and defining mission objectives, top-level and spacecraft requirements.

The document summarises the objectives and requirements of the Lunchsat mission in terms of cost and lifetime, as well as those of its space segment and two groundstations, and of its future launcher. The document goes on to define requirements of the spacecraft by mass, communications and of the mechanical, thermal and power subsystems, concluding general survivability in the harsh environment of space.

The requirements outlined in this document will form the basis of future subsystem test plans, to verify that the subsystems are being designed in accordance with their required function, and that they have indeed met their requirements.

The Mission and Subsystems Requirements document is the result of collaboration between the Lunchsat subsystem leads, including Fatou Mbaye (Systems) and Julia Ryan (Mechanical) reporting to project lead Nick Fishwick. Graham Johnson (Systems) also provided contributions as subsystem advisor.

For more information, consult the Media area of the Lunchsat website.

Preparation begins for systems and management reviews

As the team works to finish subsystem reports and testing, the dates for the key events concluding the Lunchsat programme for this year have been finalised.

Senior and line management have been invited to attend the events, which aim to gather the Lunchsat team, management and interested internal parties for a briefing on the progress made over the past twelve months.

The details of the final sessions scheduled for this year are as follows:

Afternoon Session: Thursday 8 July

Another of the standard afternoon work sessions to conclude work in preparation for the upcoming reviews. Work shall begin on the presentations required for the reviews.

Subsystem Reviews: Monday 19 to Tuesday 27 July

Separate technical review sessions allowing Astrium experts to meet with their respective subsystem team members, for the review of documents and results attained over the year.

Afternoon Session: Thursday 22 July

The final afternoon session of the year, scheduled for preparation of the Systems Review.

Systems Review: Wednesday 28 July

A videoconference between Portsmouth and Stevenage will allow the Lunchsat team to connect for a round-table review with Astrium systems experts. The experts will share their opinions and advice for the team following presentations from subsystem team members.

Management Review: Friday 27 August

The annual End-of-Year Management Review, concluding the Lunchsat graduate training programme in the Stevenage Viewing Gallery. In a slightly different approach to the session, project lead Nick Fishwick is set to deliver the presentation to management, summarising the benefits of the programme and the progress made over the past year and looking for inputs from team members to describe their experiences. Astrium senior management, including Chief Technical Officer Pat Wood, are set to attend. A team lunch will be organised to conclude the programme and celebrate the achievements of the team.

The End-of-Year Management Review signals the conclusion of Lunchsat progress for 2009-10. Stay tuned as preparation begins for the upcoming 2010-11 session!

Third lecture continues successful Space Systems series

The third session of the Space Systems lecture series has been delivered to the Lunchsat teams in Portsmouth and Stevenage via videoconference, this time on the subject of AOCS (the Attitude and Orbit Control System).

The guest speaker was Astrium AOCS expert Mark Watt, who delivered a half-hour session and answered the questions that followed from enthusiastic members of the team. The lecture gave a general introduction to the AOCS subsystem, discussing both the concept of Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC, of which AOCS is a subset), and different mission types that illustrated the subsystem. This was consolidated by a look at case studies focussing on three current and future space exploration missions: the Lisa Pathfinder, the MoonLITE penetrator and the ExoMars Rover.

Guidance computes the desired trajectory between two states as a function of time and constraints, and may be translational or attitudinal. Navigation receives inputs from sensors (such as gyrometers, accelerometers, star/Sun/Earth sensors, magnetometers, GPS) and computes them to return an estimated state of the spacecraft. Control computes the commands from actuators (such as magnetorquers, control gyros and thrusters), based on the difference between the estimated and guidance-provided states.

AOCS is a required subsystem in spacecraft engineering, and an integral part in the telecommunication and scientific spacecraft, Earth observation satellites and multi-mission microsatellites of today.

The recent series of 'Space Systems' lectures have been organised for the new graduates on the Graduate Development Programme of EADS Astrium, to allow a wider appreciation of the various areas and applications of spacecraft design as part of their experience on the Lunchsat microsatellite and Campus Management outreach initiatives.

Previous lectures have focused on antennas and the thermal, mechanical and on-board computer (OBC) subsystems. For further details of the content of these sessions and for more information on the initiative, check out the Training section of the Lunchsat website.

Further training opportunities to come

In the wake of a run of successful Amateur Radio training events, another course is being formulated that could provide an ideal opportunity for Lunchsatters to broaden their skillsets.

The course, 'In-Orbit Test Basics for Payload Engineers (IOTBPAL)' is currently being organised as an Astrium internal training opportunity which, if it is to run, would make use of the Lunchsat groundstation equipment and technology in Portsmouth. The good news arrives as Astrium sets to increase its in-orbit testing on Lunchsat ground infrastructure for the future.

Watch this space...

Stevenage team passes Amateur Radio course

Following the successes of the Portsmouth team, Lunchsat project members based in Stevenage have now also passed their Foundation exam in Amateur Radio. Both teams are now licensed to transmit from the Portsmouth and Stevenage groundstations.

Congratulations to Nicolas Sarda (Stevenage Groundstation), Martin Garland (Payload: Imager), Goodwell Kapfunde (Stevenage Groundstation), Chris Lord (ADCS) and Thomas Stuttard (Systems, Power) for passing the exam, demonstrating their proficiency in the techniques of Amateur Radio communication.

With Foundation licenses now in hand, the Lunchsat teams in Portsmouth and Stevenage will be able to communicate with each other, as well as satellites via radio groundstations around the world. Watch this space for exclusive news of the first inter-site Lunchsat radio transmission!

The Radio Society of Great Britain offers training courses in Amateur Radio across the country -- check out their website for details of courses available in your region. Radio spectrum in the UK is regulated by Ofcom, which issues and regulates Amateur Radio licenses. For further information and to get involved in the global Amateur Radio community, check out the Amateur Radio Research and Development Corporation (AMRAD).

Abstracts submitted for IAC 2010

Today, several members of the Lunchsat team submitted abstracts to the International Astronautical Federation, the international space-advocacy organisation that recently made a call for papers for its annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC).

The IAC invites professionals from across the global space community to convene and share knowledge and ideas. This year's 61st IAC will run for a week in Prague with the theme 'space for human benefit and exploration' from 27 September. The abstracts covered topics such as operations and workforce development.

Christopher Lord (ADCS), Jason Stones (Media), Mauricio Molas Serrano (Portsmouth Groundstation) and Thomas Stuttard (Systems, Power), together with project lead Nick Fishwick (Project Management) and the guidance of project champion Ronan Wall, have all submitted abstracts to introduce potential papers that, if selected, will be written for and presented at the IAC conference from 27 September.

Christopher Lord: 'Implications of Passive Magnetic Attitude Control for a Cube-Sat'
B4.3 Small Satellite Missions Symposium -- Small Sat Operations

Jason Stones: 'The Potential of Innovative Outreach from Cube-Sat Programmes'
E1.4 Space Education and Outreach Symposium -- New Worlds, Innovative Space Education and Outreach

Mauricio Molas Serrano: 'Assessment of Amateur Radio in the Cube-Sat Community'
E1.2 Space Education and Outreach Symposium -- On Track: Undergraduate and Postgraduate Space Education

Thomas Stuttard: 'Systems Engineering, Operations and Payload Interfacing in Cube-Sats'
B4.6 Small Satellite Missions Symposium -- Design and Technology for Nano-Sats and Cube-Sats

Nick Fishwick: A Training Programme for Young Professionals in EADS Astrium to Build a Nano-Satellite'
E1.7 Space Education and Outreach Symposium -- Space Workforce Development: Challenges and Opportunities

Applicants nominated by the IAF to present their abstract will be notified on 26 April. Those successful will then be invited to write the paper and present it at the Prague IAC event in September.

For further details of this year's conference, visit the website of the International Astronautical Congress which is organised by the International Astronautical Federation. IAC2010 runs from 27 September to 1 October in Prague.