Greetings AMSAT Florida,
The third round of FUNSAT competitions are getting ready to begin and I've been asked by the organizers if there are AMSAT members willing to work with potential teams from USF (Tampa) and UNF (Jacksonville). You don't need to be an expert on every aspect of spacecraft design. As an example, I'd never pretend to be a structures or mechanical expert, but I can tell when there's no place to attach an antenna or mount a PC board. Often you'll find you're radio skills are exactly what they need most.
Below is the general annoucement describing the FUNSAT competition.
Please let me know if you're able and willing to help work with either of these potential competition teams.
Tnx & 73, Lee-KU4OS
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Through a grant from NASA, the Florida Space Grant Consortium (FSGC) is pleased to offer this competition for your consideration. The FUNSAT (Florida University SATellite) is a pico-satellite with a mass of 1 Kg and the size of 10 x 10 x 10 cm3. The main objectives of this competition are promotion of an interdisciplinary project for systems engineering, supporting a test-bed for advanced technologies such as MEMS, and promoting advanced study and career development for Florida students in the field of aerospace.
This competition will allow students to work closely with professionals from the field on a project that will have great significance in the coming years. The competition will include the design, fabrication, and a possible launch into space for the winning design. In the conceptual design (first round), competitors will be provided with technical support by FSGC, NASA and space industries.
The finalists will be fully supported for their detailed design and building of their design, which are all material and launch costs as well as a technical workshop at the Kennedy Space Center. Indeed, it will be an ideal project for your senior design class. Please refer to the following website for more information: http://fsgc.engr.ucf.edu/funsat/. The website will be updated.
The first and second competitions have been completed successfully and each one of the designs is a credit to their respective universities and design teams. We hope that your participation will exceed even those designs in innovation, design quality, and professionalism. The schedule for the 2006-2007 competition is as follows:
1.Fall Semester a.Notice Of Intent due September 22, 2006 b.Conceptual design submitted before semester break
2.Spring Semester a.Finalists announced early January b.Workshop for design presentations c.Engineering Model of a demonstration subsystem or payload (only one subsystem is required) due along with final detail design report (DDR) d.Winner announced near end of Spring semester
3.Summer Semester a.Winning team supported for Flight model construction b.Testing and evaluation
4.Launch
Sincerely,
Team FUNSAT