design idea needed for small satellites

[Jobin Francis]

what are the current relevant topics in the area of designing of student satellites (nano satellites, pico satellites , phone sat , cub sat). Expecting ur valuable suggestions

 

[andre_luis]

in the area of designing of student satellites

It is not too clear whether you are concerned on the electronic's design or in the launching physics involved on that, anyway as far as I know it is not exactly a matter for which one would get a permit readily approved by government regulatory agencies except subscribing a lot of norms and requests; even hobbyists who are engaged on that have to adhere to strict control rules, particularly with respect to what is permitted or not to buy or the technology employed on what they can manufacture themselves. Unless you join to any educational institute having a research institute with official support covering this area, you'll not get succeed in this endeavor. Anyway, there are a lot of other knowledge fields covering subjects somehow related to this matter, but without necessarily having to throw some stuff in orbit. To summarize, due to the sensitivity of the issue, you will need to look for more details on specific books and articles which obviously will not provide you all the state of the art information in deep, but just the theoretical aspects.

 

[Jobin Francis]

Thanks for your valuable comments. We are part of an educational institution in India. The students have started proposals with the below mentioned aims
1. To measure the electrical conductivity of the stratosphere
2 To measure the troposphere methane content
Are the ideas meaningful. can we go forward with that..
replies expecting

 

[c_mitra]

1. To measure the electrical conductivity of the stratosphere
2 To measure the troposphere methane content

Both the ideas are meaningful and both are relevant.

Electrical conductivity will depend on the presence of ions- they are being produced by ionizing radiation and they are extra terrestrial in origin (cosmic rays and other high energy radiations). They deplete ozone and are responsible for reflection of AM long wavelength radio waves.

As the satellite will be much higher, how you plan to sample troposphere gases for methane? You will need a goo sensor for methane.

 

[betwixt]

Maybe high altitude helium/hydrogen balloons may be a better solution. I have video here of early attempts at 'near space' (sub orbital range) launches carrying monitoring equipment from back in the 1980s, all home made! There are some wonderful pictures from a camera showing how thin the atmosphere is and clearly showing the curvature of the horizon. All controlled by a 6800 microprocessor and running on ni-cad batteries! Maximum altitude was about 37Km but that could be improved with more recent technologies.

Brian.

 

[c_mitra]

Maximum altitude was about 37Km but that could be improved with more recent technologies..

It is tough to better this altitude; commercial planes fly around 10 km; concorde flew at 20 km- the sky was black at that altitude. The U2 spy plane could not do much better than that. Balloons typically cannot climb much higher because the atmosphere is so thin. They are typically filled 10% of their capacity at the ground level. I guess today a student satellite may be cheaper than the balloon. But a geo stationary satellite may be flying at 1000 times this altitude in almost interplanetary vacuum.

 

[RETGT]

Maybe high altitude helium/hydrogen balloons may be a better solution. I have video here of early attempts at 'near space' (sub orbital range) launches carrying monitoring equipment from back in the 1980s, all home made! There are some wonderful pictures from a camera showing how thin the atmosphere is and clearly showing the curvature of the horizon. All controlled by a 6800 microprocessor and running on ni-cad batteries! Maximum altitude was about 37Km but that could be improved with more recent technologies.

Brian.

how to get ballon to search in atmosphere???

 

[dpaul]

Thanks for your valuable comments. We are part of an educational institution in India. The students have started proposals with the below mentioned aims
1. To measure the electrical conductivity of the stratosphere
2 To measure the troposphere methane content
Are the ideas meaningful. can we go forward with that..
replies expecting

Why don't you look for an internship/project with ISRO? Wouldn't that be the easiest way out?

Else DRDO? **broken link removed**

Then you can use their resources and do whatever measurement you would like to do (with their permission)!

 

[RETGT]

because i will open my own
would isro teach me this??

 

[dpaul]

because i will open my own
would isro teach me this??

How can I tell that?

We are part of an educational institution in India.

That suggests you are not a student. Also suggests you might have some authority over the students.

So you can tell the students to come with topics that can be easily deployed.

Else have to go with #5, but in my opinion that would also be very very difficult to deploy.

Thus given the complexity involved, was my answer in #8. It would be much better and easier for you & your students can tie up with ISRO/DRDO and do some projects.

 

[RETGT]

Maximum altitude was about 37Km but that could be improved with more recent technologies.

how you reached 37km
how should i try this?

 

[andre_luis]

Didn't you read the post #5 from where you took that information ?

 

[betwixt]

I have the video here showing how it was done and the results it produced but it's a 1980's VHS recording in NTSC, converted to PAL then converted to DVD so the quality isn't too good. I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Brown who did the early experiments at a conference in Indianapolis back in 1989 and he gave me the original tape, I also shot some footage of my own at the conference.

Basically, the equipment was a styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) box to give good heat insulation, with a small camera, sensors, controller PCB and a NiCad battery pack. The camera lens looked out through a hole in the side of the box at a mirror which was hinged and pulled by a motorized lever. It spend about 30 seconds 'lifted' then 30 second at 45 degrees, this let the camera see the horizon or look down at the Earth below. The sensors monitored air pressure and temperatures and the controller overlayed the information as text in to the camera picture. The information downlink was on (I think) about 470MHz using normal (at the time) AM TV standard.

It was lifted by a helium filled 'weather balloon' which expanded as the atmospheric pressure dropped until it eventually burst at peak altitude. Beneath it there was a small parachute which deployed as it fell back to ground. It also had a VHF tracer beacon on board so it could be tracked and located when it landed many Km away. Miraculously, it was all still operational after crash landing! Bear in mind this was all home made and in the days before large scale MCUs were available so the controller was a 6800 with all the support RAM, EPROMS and TTL logic around it.

You might find this web site useful: www.batc.tv
Look under the "Film Archive" category then "AMSAT" and "ARISS" for short video clips about satellite experiments.
If you want a laugh, look under "BATC Classic" at "Bob and Brian Broadcasters" and you will see Bob (R.I.P) and myself doing TV experiments 20 years ago!

Brian.

 

[RETGT]

great sir you are genius
thanks for sharing knowledge...

Ritesh kakkar

- - - Updated - - -

You might find this web site useful: www.batc.tv
Look under the "Film Archive" category then "AMSAT" and "ARISS" for short video clips about satellite experiments.
If you want a laugh, look under "BATC Classic" at "Bob and Brian Broadcasters" and you will see Bob (R.I.P) and myself doing TV experiments 20 years ago!


this?

https://www.batc.tv/channel.php?ch=1

 

[betwixt]

Click on the images on the left side under "Channels" rather than using a direct link as the numbers in the link may change.

1. Click the image "Film Archive"
2. click the arrow beside "General" to reveal the categories. ARISS and AMSAT are about satellites.
3. click "Select Category"
4. click the individual video titles in the box below it.
5. click "Play Stream" to view it.

Brian.

 

[RETGT]

sir can you post the images of your work?