Cubesat Project Rincon Research Matt Bunting Mike Parker, John Jensen University of Arizona 4/17/08

Rincon Research Started in 1983 DSP Research Build FPGA and RF products Designed for national security Began cubesat research in 1996

Cubesat 10cm*10cm*10cm cube Launched in batches Launch cost approximately $10k

Rincon Cubesat History 2 original satellites RINCON, SACRED 6 years to build Launched in 2006 Launch was a failure Restarted project

Proposal Build a Cubesat with three dipole antennas Measure polarization of EM waves Proposal sent in by Mike Parker and John Jensen Missed deadline for proposal Could not get funding in time for this year

Related Project Cubesats generally use low power antennas High gain ground station antenna High gain antennas are directional Need to point antenna directly at satellite Goal: build a tracking system that points an antenna to a satellite in orbit

Antenna Yagi antenna Results in high gain Highly directional Measures polarization

Rotator Control both Azimuth and Elevation Controlled through RS- 232

Position rotator Convert GPS data to spherical coordinates Convert Spherical coordinates to cartesian position Determine azimuth and elevation for rotator

Automatic Packet Reporting System APRS May be used for Tracking Had intention to us APRS for testing Receive data through RS-232

Python Easy to program Highly used language at Rincon

Result Controlled rotator perfectly Received GPS data well Calculated rotator position perfectly Never could get a computer with two RS-232 ports Could never check final code

Thank You