UNISAT-3 is the third microsatellite designed and manufactured by a team of students, researchers and professors at the Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale of the Università di Roma “La Sapienza”. The launch was successfully performed on 29th June 2004, from the Baikonour cosmodrome using the DNEPR launch vehicle. UNISAT-4 is currently under realization and it is scheduled to be launched on December 2005. The main UNISAT program aim is the education of the students which are participating in all the phases of the program, from the initial mission concept to the in orbit operations. Other aims of the program are technological (in orbit testing and space qualifying terrestrial off the shelf commercial and industrial components and technologies, yielding a direct technological interest for the industries and contributing to keep low the program cost and affordable for the university research budget) and scientific (Earth-magnetic field and ionospheric plasma parameters measurements, space debris environment in-situ analysis, considering and testing suitable solutions for mitigation). The paper describes, the UNISAT-3 platform main subsystems and results achieved in orbit. Power, telecommunication, OBDH (On Board Data Handling), attitude control and structural systems are depicted, putting in evidence the platform flexibility to host on board possible new navigation or telecommunication related experiments. The second part of the paper deals with UNISAT-4 payloads description, showing the configuration changes to adapt UNISAT platform to these different payloads and evaluating expected data, focussing in particular on a space navigation experiment using a GPS receiver.
F. Graziani, F. Santoni, F. Piergentili, F. Bulgarelli, M. Sgubini, M. Ronzitti, et al. (2005). UNISAT microsatellites: an affordable way to test in orbit innovative technologies and ideas. s.l : s.n.
UNISAT microsatellites: an affordable way to test in orbit innovative technologies and ideas
PIERGENTILI, FABRIZIO;
2005
Abstract
UNISAT-3 is the third microsatellite designed and manufactured by a team of students, researchers and professors at the Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale of the Università di Roma “La Sapienza”. The launch was successfully performed on 29th June 2004, from the Baikonour cosmodrome using the DNEPR launch vehicle. UNISAT-4 is currently under realization and it is scheduled to be launched on December 2005. The main UNISAT program aim is the education of the students which are participating in all the phases of the program, from the initial mission concept to the in orbit operations. Other aims of the program are technological (in orbit testing and space qualifying terrestrial off the shelf commercial and industrial components and technologies, yielding a direct technological interest for the industries and contributing to keep low the program cost and affordable for the university research budget) and scientific (Earth-magnetic field and ionospheric plasma parameters measurements, space debris environment in-situ analysis, considering and testing suitable solutions for mitigation). The paper describes, the UNISAT-3 platform main subsystems and results achieved in orbit. Power, telecommunication, OBDH (On Board Data Handling), attitude control and structural systems are depicted, putting in evidence the platform flexibility to host on board possible new navigation or telecommunication related experiments. The second part of the paper deals with UNISAT-4 payloads description, showing the configuration changes to adapt UNISAT platform to these different payloads and evaluating expected data, focussing in particular on a space navigation experiment using a GPS receiver.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
