Small Satellite Projects

CU students teamed with Lockheed Martin to design, construct and fly a novel “3U” cubesat, known as ALL-STAR (Agile Low-cost Laboratory for Space Technology Acceleration and Research). Launch of ALL-STAR is scheduled through the NASA Educational Launch of Nanosatellites Program (ELaNa)

Principal Investigator:

• Chris Koehler; Colorado Space Grant Coalition, Aerospace Engineering Sciences

The Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE), funded by the National Science Foundation and measuring only 10x10x30 cm, was launched in September 2012. The exciting new measurements of energetic particles made by this “3U” CubeSat are complementary to NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission. The mission ended in January 2015.

Principal Investigator:

• Xinlin Li; LASP

Co-investigator:

• Scott Palo; Aerospace Engineering Sciences

The NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate awarded one of ten Small Satellite Partnership Cooperative Agreements to the University of Colorado. The goal of the project was to develop a CubeSat radio that is compatible with the NASA Near-Earth network. The team developed a prototype high-rate (12.5mbps) X-band CubeSat transmitter in an effort to address the need for a robust communications system that operates outside of the amateur band of radio communications.

Principal Investigator:

• Scott Palo; Aerospace Engineering Sciences, LASP

A 6U CubeSat designed and built by students in the CU Aerospace Engineering Graduate projects class and competing in the NASA CubeQuest Deep Space Challenge. The team is competing for 1 of three slots on the NASA SLS launch scheduled for 2018.

Principal Investigator:

• Scott Palo; Aerospace Engineering Sciences

A 6U CubeSat funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and part of the University Nanosatellite Program. The mission is designed to demonstrate both high rate and multiple user (CDMA) communications from a CubeSat and is planned for launch in 2019.

Principal Investigator:

• Scott Palo; Aerospace Engineering Sciences

The MiniMASS instrument was successfully launched on June 30, 2016, from Andoya, Norway, on board the Norwegian MAXIDUSTY 1 rocket as part of a two-rocket campaign to study the formation of noctilucent clouds (or polar mesospheric clouds). The MiniMASS instrument collected data on the mass and charge distribution of aerosol particles forming in the mesosphere region and data analysis is ongoing.

Principal Investigators:

• Zoltan Sternovsky
• Scott Robertson; LASP, Aerospace Engineering Sciences, Physics

The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) is a 3U CubeSat designed to measure the soft x-ray portion of the solar spectrum. MinxSS-1 was the first NASA SMD satellite launched and has been operating successfully on orbit since May 2016. MinXSS-2 has recently completed testing and is scheduled to be delivered for a January 9, 2017 launch date.

Principal Investigator:

• Tom Woods; LASP

Co-investigator:

• Scott Palo; Aerospace Engineering Sciences

CU Boulder researchers and students are designing, building and testing a low-cost PolarCube CubeSat, scheduled for launch in 2017. PolarCube instruments will help improve weather observations and sea ice status, and students have also built a tracking station and data processing algorithms to support the mission.

Principal Investigators:

• Brian Sanders; Colorado Space Grant Consortium
• David Gallaher; National Snow & Ice Dat Center
• Albin Gasiewski; Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering

QB50 is an EU sponsored project to launch 50 CubeSats into orbit. Aerospace Engineering Sciences is collaborating with the University of Michigan, Stanford University and the University of Turabo, Puerto Rico. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and scheduled to launch in 2017.

Principal Investigator:

• Scott Palo; Aerospace Engineering Sciences

The Student Dust Counter (SDC) was designed and built to detect dust both on the interplanetary journey to Pluto and beyond, as part of the New Horizons mission, which completed a successful flyby of Pluto in July 2015.

Principal Investigator:

• Mihály Horányi; Physics, LASP