Seven Canadian college groups are at CSA headquarters this week readying their CubeSats for a launch in March.
The group represents the subsequent tranche of the Canadian CubeSat Mission (CCP) that coincidentally, noticed a part of an earlier group fly into house efficiently on Saturday (Nov. 26) aboard a SpaceX Falcon Dragon. (These CubeSats have been from Dalhousie College and the College of Victoria, as SpaceQ recently wrote about here.)
The milestone flight to the Worldwide Area Station represents what would be the final purpose for the groups working close to Montreal this week, as they are going to be finalizing integration. The total checklist of contributors on this spherical embrace Yukon School, the Aurora Analysis Institute, the College of Alberta, McMaster College, Concordia College, Université de Sherbrooke and York College.
“The scholars have reached some extent the place they’ve accomplished the CubeSat constructing and testing, they usually have a purpose from Nanoracks for integration – conditional to some remaining checks, like a match test,” mentioned Tony Pellerin, supervisor of the mechanical-engineering group on the Canadian Area Company (CSA) who helps to supervise the scholars’ progress as technical lead for CCP.
Assuming the progress continues and launch schedules maintain, the seven satellites ought to fly into house on March 2 aboard a SpaceX Dragon to the ISS for deployment by an astronaut inside 4 to 5 weeks after the satellites attain the orbiting advanced, Pellerin mentioned.
CCP was first introduced in April 2017 and the 15 grants have been introduced in Might 2018. The assorted CubeSats needs to be delivered to the ISS in 2022 and 2023 and particular person missions could final so long as a 12 months, in line with CSA supplies.
The CSA has mentioned these are the goals of the CubeSat project:
- Enhance college students’ curiosity in STEM, significantly in house domains;
- Develop college students’ experience in house domains;
- Give college students hands-on expertise and put together them to enter the job market; and
- Advance house science and/or know-how.
When requested by SpaceQ how the CCP is doing in assembly these targets to this point, Pellerin mentioned that anecdotal proof exhibits {that a} excessive share of scholars collaborating in this system have remained throughout the house business after commencement. On the launch final week, for instance, 15 college students from a number of college groups attended and 6 of these are present house business contributors, Pellerin famous.
The pains of studying “how we construct stuff for house” are helpful for associated disciplines too, he emphasised. The ISS has human security necessities which are fairly exacting, which college students are educated to satisfy or exceed, they usually additionally be taught in regards to the design, testing and integration phases of CubeSat creation – all the way in which from design reiews to pre-launch opinions.
“You’re going to scrutinize your design and ensure all the pieces meets the necessities which are set by NASA, and the necessities that you’ve got on your mission,” he mentioned, noting that associated expertise they’ve constructed embrace assembly technical requirements and procedures – which is relevant to quite a few industries in STEM (science, know-how, engineering and math).
The scholars are additionally studying to navigate obstacles all the way in which as much as launch time; the group that flew right down to the Kennedy Area Middle to witness the ISS launch noticed it canceled at T-4 seconds and delayed by a number of days, a fairly regular aspect of spaceflight that college students might want to get used to, Pellerin mentioned.
However by way of launches, it wasn’t all dangerous information; by coincidence, the Eutelsat 10B telecommunications satellite tv for pc was launching the identical night as the unique ISS launch and the scholars have been in a position to watch Eutelsat from a Floridian seashore, Pellerin mentioned.
Pellerin mentioned one other spherical of CubeSat design alternatives needs to be scheduled to exit comparatively quickly throughout the college group, in order that extra college students have the possibility to go to house with real-life {hardware} whereas they’re nonetheless in class. You may learn extra about that program, known as the CubeSats Initiative in Canada for STEM (CUBICS), on this past SpaceQ story.
