Anatomy Of A Satellite

Project Calliope

IT arrived. With little fanfare, an ordinary cardboard box full of packing peanuts has thrown my life into panic and confusion. For the mighty packing slip says it all. "Parts&Packing List". Inside is... a piece of paper. And, hopefully, buried under the packing peanuts, also a satellite.

box with packing peanuts

My satellite. My InterOrbital pico-satellite. "Project Calliope", the satellite. The THING I'm BUILDING in my BASEMENT (dum-dum-dah-dum!). Did you ever wonder just what a satellite is made of? The answer is... this!

Pico-chu

That's it. That's a picosatellite. Nearly every piece, excluding instruments and sensors. I have to choose and build those separately. This is the housing, the solar cells and power system, the on-board computer, the little offsets and screws and fairing pieces, everything needed to get me into space.

Let's zoom in a bit.

What the Wizard Gave Us

Here we have the brains, heart, and courage of the system. Specifically, a microcomputer, a battery, and a not-ready-for-primetime flight tube. Yes, technically the tube is the body, not 'courage', but that would ruin my Wizard of Oz analogy.

the main 3 components

There's also a transmitter there, and I'll be covering data downlink in a separate article.

The Electric Company

Power! More power to him! Err, right, solar power. The satellite uses solar panels to keep the battery charged and perky. Right now, I don't have solar panels, just 48 solar cells (plus 2 spares).

The solar cells came in a styrofoam 'rack', as they are highly fragile. As if the styrofoam packing wasn't warning enough, I also received warning emails from IO Systems reminding me to be careful. Part of the reason these are fragile is they are not in their 'final form'.

closeup of 2 cells

To be useful, they must be attached to something stronger, and of course wired up. I received the PCB board schematics by email, and fired up a program called KiCAD to read 'em. I have to 8 of the boards fabricated and shipped to me. I'll slap the cells onto the board, wire 'em up, and we'll have bonafide solar panels. That's my next task to tackle, actually-- ordering the PCB board fabrication.

The Outer Limits

Ever build something and end up with a lot of extra parts left over? Whoops. Okay, these aren't really extra parts. These are the pieces that don't go onto the actual satellite, but help with building and programming it. Cables and a USB interface board to hook it up to a PC, CDs with documentation, and an little cable that I haven't figure out yet, probably a sensors cable.

interface parts

I'll be writing in detail as I start tackling each part, but that wraps up the overview of What Was In The Box.

Have Satellite, Will Travel

And without further ado, I pack it into a small protective case and we're ready to go. It is really that small, that lightweight. It's moments like these that make me proud to be the premiere (well, only) maker of boutique satellites.

And in about a year, it'll be assembled and going into space.

satellite in a box

Alex

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Comments

Ever build something and end up with a lot of extra parts left over?

Always! It is at such moments that I start to think about translating the manual into real English
;)

Patrick Lockerby | 02/23/10 | 19:17 PM

Anxiously awaiting results, please do keep us posted.
Sampling keyboard is on standby.
Will be following along.
Good luck!
Ad astra pervenis.

—

www.anti-socialengineering.com

Brian Taylor | 02/23/10 | 19:30 PM

And in about a year, it'll be assembled and going into space.

Isn't it supposed to be going up in 8 months? October 2010 is the launch, right?

Hank Campbell | 02/24/10 | 02:24 AM

And in about a year, it'll be assembled and going into space.

Isn't it supposed to be going up in 8 months? October 2010 is the launch, right?

The InterOrbital website currently lists an estimate of Dec 2010, but pragmatically, no new rocket ever hits its window. This isn't just with the new companies-- Scaled Composite, Armadillo, Space-X. When Lockheed-Martin/Boein roll out a new Delta configuration, there's always delays getting it ready. For the Japanese missions I worked with, a new M rocket design always involved a few month's slip.

I'll start posting some of the InterOrbital updates I get, but basically, I see things as on track yet I expect unexpected delays. As we get closer to the end of the year, dates will solidify, but we'll also have a few unexpected slips. Just part of the 'fun' of rocket science!

Alex

Alex "Sandy" Antunes | 02/24/10 | 07:51 AM

That's a disappointment and if it's endemic to the industry it explains why small commercial ventures are not more common. Government is one thing - no accountabilitiy - but a private company told us we had to get them a check in October because it was a year away and that was a hard deadline. Now it is still a year away. If there are 30 companies they did this to, it will get weird.

Hank Campbell | 02/24/10 | 10:33 AM

I'm actually pretty confident on things. For gov't, commercial and private satellites alike, satellite users have a choice. They can go with a tried-and-true rocket, or take a chance with a new launcher that may have longer likely delays but typically adds some capability-- larger payload, better orbit, or lower cost. For Calliope, we're going with higher risk but lower cost.

Of higher importance is where you are on the launch queue, which is why (for Calliope) it was important to get onto their first payload manifest. The queue doesn't change, everyone just gets shifted. This is particularly harsh in Japan, where they have only two launch months a year (due to an agreement with the fishing industry!) So if you bump more than a few weeks in Japan, you drop to half a year later!

If there's one thing to learn with this project, it's that rocket science is still hard. It's like early aviation, and it takes risk to advance. As a result, most commercial satellite replacements plan to launch 'in a given quarter', not on a given date.

So it's more clear to say we're set to launch in first quarter 2011, than to give a specific month. We're on the queue for first launch, and we have our satellite kits so our instrument building can proceed apace. Personally, I'm glad to have the time-- gives me more time for integration and testing.

On one satellite mission, there were 7 instruments, and a rocket upgrade being planned. At a certain point, everyone know launch would be delayed, it was just a question of 'who twitches first'-- who would be the first to say they needed extra time and thus be at fault. When it was the rocket people, all the instrument teams breathed a sigh of relief.

Alex

p.s. I'll probably expand this into an article shortly.

Project Calliope | 02/24/10 | 11:22 AM