VE6AB Technical
How a CubeSast is Designed and Built.
Th February 2015 issue of Nuts and Volts has many interesting articles within its covers, however the article on building a CubeSat is especially interesting to those who possibly have aspirations on starting their own space program.
My interest was certainly peaked with this article, as I enjoy making contact with other hams through amateur radio satellites orbiting the Earth, although I realize that most of us including myself are not going to build a CubeSat.
Having said that and as someone who enjoys working the birds, I found the article very informative as to what a CubeSat is all about from a users point of view.
The article in this issue is part 2 of a series that started with part 1 in a previous issue that covered how CubeSats evolved from their earlier beginnings.
Part 2 covers where to source and purchase individual parts as well as CubeSat kits.
One of the CubeSat kits available includes a solid-wall cubic airframe (10 centimeters per side), a flight computer loaded with Salvo RTOS, A "Remove Before Flight pin to safeguard the CubeSat before its loaded into the P-POD (Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer), Programing software and programming cable.
This barebones kit also includes a five volt power supply to power the CubeSat on the bench.
You will still need to add the power telemetry and sensors.
There is a lot of different airframe options and flight computers available.
This article is supported with a lot of informative photographs as well, and there is a part 3 in the works continuing your education on how to build your own CubeSat.
Also another good read is a second article on designing and assembling a radio antenna system that is focused on simple and readily available components for those of us who enjoy designing and building antennas.
