As I mentioned a few weeks ago . . . Not all of us are focused on ARISSat-1.

I left everyone with two thoughts: * Look to the Empire State near the Harvest Moon * A gift may arrive near the ides of May

At the AMSAT Symposium (which happens to be occurring near the Harvest Moon) a paper was presented on behalf of a team of students from the State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University), Thomas J Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The students form, as part of their Senior Design Projects, the core of an AMSAT volunteer team to modify the ARISSat-1 design into the Next Generation of OSCARs using the CubeSat specification, i.e. the NextGen Project. It will be an OPEN, modular design in furtherance of the decision at last year's symposium to create a building block architecture for future satellites.

The core student team consists of 27 Systems Engineering students who are focusing on requirements analysis of ARISSat-1, documenting the ARISSat-1 systems, and analyzing the lessons learned from ARISSat-1 / other prior spacecraft. The goal is to have a modular, evolutionary design ready for NextGen's presentation at the 2010 Dayton Hamvention. (which happens to be occurring near the ides of May . . . ). There are also 7 Mechanical, Electrical and Computer Engineers working together with the Systems Engineers on the Power and Structure Systems of NextGen. The EEs will be focusing on redesigning the ARISSat-1 Power Systems to use Supercapacitors instead of batteries and reducing the footprint of some of the boards (ICB especially). The MEs will be focused on modifying the structure to incorporate deployable solar panels with a scalable design that will work for 1U, 2U and 3U sizes.

So that's a total core team of 34 Students . . . plus advisers, mentors and volunteers

The goal is for NextGen to be a Picosat-class bus structure that AMSAT, or any other University, can use for 1U, 2U, or 3U CubeSat spacecraft. We will be using good Industrial Engineering concepts to drive the unit cost down while maintaining reliability. If we can get the cost low enough to mass produce the NextGen bus, AMSAT could make the bus available at low-to-no-cost to qualified University groups - AMSAT would handle spacecraft operations during the primary mission, but when the primary mission is complete, the satellite is turned over to AMSAT for it's secondary mission as a new Amateur Radio Satelite - an OSCAR in every CubeSat. Now the satellite, given the right conditions, could have a lifetime equivalent to AO-7. This will allow Universities and Schools to focus on developing the payload and experiments to fit within the integrated and proven spacecraft bus.

An Engineering Model of the NextGen CubeSat spacecraft bus will be on display at the Dayton Hamvention AMSAT Booth for everyone to study.

The BU team is the core of the AMSAT team, but we are looking for other individuals and University/School teams to participate in all aspects of the spacecraft design - RF Systems - Guidance, Navigation, Control & Experiment Systems - Power & Structure Systems. This is an ongoing effort, it is not a one time event, but the start of a stable, evolutionary design process that will further STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathmatics) with the Next Generation of engineers and amateur radio operators.

We're going to do Evolutionary Change, not Revolutionary Change. We're going to utilize, modify and develop Reusable Modules We're going to start with Picosat-class and work our way up We're going to use good Systems Engineering standards and practices WITHOUT stifling creativity and the need to have FUN We're going to all LEARN something from each other

Volunteers are needed, the adventure awaits! Time to stop talking and time to get working.

There have been lots of posts on this list (AMSAT-BB) about not having enough of in-orbit spacecraft, - well now is your chance to make a difference.

V O L U N T E E R !

Even if you only have an hour a week, you can mentor a student over the phone or you can peer review a document that the students(or someone else) are working on. If you have more than an hour a week, you can implement a small design change to an existing subsystem; you could respin the board layout to meet a reduced form factor; you could redesign a module to use different technology (there are lots of ways to do an SDX and lots of ways to do an IHU). If you are working with a University/School who is working on a CubeSat or thinking about it, talk to me, we're looking for other teams to contribute. Your students will get experience dealing with geographically-distributed virtual teams.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments or offers to volunteer.

Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP NextGen Program Manager

Alex, N3SQ wrote:

There are some of us out here who are trying to bring a little order to the chaos and help AMSAT, but we are all not working on ARISSat-1.

Our effort lies in the following vectors and scalars:

• Change needs to be EVOLUTIONARY not REVOLUTIONARY.
• Chaos can be harnessed with the correct application of traceability.
• The future leads through the correct application of effort

There are clouds of dust on the horizon . . . . . with the sound of many hoof-beats in the distance . . . . . is that a bugle call-to-arms I hear on the wind? Those who know, understand. Those who need to know will find out soon enough.

I will leave you with these two thoughts until next time . . .

• Look to the Empire State near the Harvest Moon.
• A gift may arrive near the ides of May.