SACRED

SACRED was a Cubesat built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. It was the product of the work of about 50 students, ranging from college freshmen to Ph. D. students, over the course of several years. It was launched, after being postponed several times, onboard a Dnepr on July 26, 2006. The launch was a failure. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... CP-1, CalPoly Cubesat Ncube-2, a Norwegian Cubesat A CubeSat is a type of space research picosatellite with dimensions of 10×10×10 centimetres (i. ... The University of Arizona (UA or U of A) is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. ... The Dnepr rocket (Ukrainian: ; Russian: ) is a space launch vehicle named after the Dnieper River. ... is the 207th day of the year (208th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Listening

To listen to SACRED if it had made orbit, you would have needed the following:

1. The keplerian elements, in order to know where the satellite is pointed.
2. A radio capable of operating on 436.870 MHz, which will change with doppler shifting.
3. A 1200 baud AFSK modem, preferably a very low-end, that does no modulation on its own. Cubesat Groundstation uses a custom-built hardware modem, and possibly a software modem (using the sound card as an Analog-to-Digital converter).
4. The UA Cubesat GS software would help, however, it is not currently available to the public.
5. A good antenna system, the design of the antennas is not optimal.

The elements of an orbit are the parameters needed to specify that orbit uniquely, given a model of two ideal masses obeying the Newtonian laws of motion and the inverse-square law of gravitational attraction. ... The Doppler effect is the apparent change in frequency or wavelength of a wave that is perceived by an observer moving relative to the source of the waves. ...

Components

SACRED had the following components included:

• 6 solar cells
• Aluminum frame - built to spin-stabilize through sunlight
• Power board (used to hold batteries, maintain 5V and 3.3V charges, measure voltages and currents in several spots, and convert the power from the solar cells to usable power.)
• Microcontroller board, which is used to gather and transmit telemetry.
• Radio board, which is used for 2 way communication
• Experiment - A radiation experiment, which will monitor the radiation effect on several components over long periods of time.

A solar cell, made from a monocrystalline silicon wafer A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts light energy into electrical energy. ... Spin-stabilisation is the method of stabilizing a satellite by means of spin. ...

Specifications

These specifications are without respect to the payload.

• Dimensions - 10 cm×10 cm×10 cm
• Mass - max 1 kg (Actual ~900 gram)
• Power Generation - Optimum ~2 W, average on sun side ~1.5 W
• Max power output - 3W when transmitting data
• Min power output - 100mW when in quiet state

Current status

SACRED was launched with UA's satellite, Rincon 1 on July 26, 2006, at 19:43 UTC onboard a Dnepr rocket. The launch failed shortly after takeoff and SACRED was destroyed. Rincon 1 is a Cubesat build by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. ... is the 207th day of the year (208th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Dnepr rocket (Ukrainian: ; Russian: ) is a space launch vehicle named after the Dnieper River. ...

External links

• University of Arizona Student Satellite website (Outdated)
• University of Arizona Cubesat website (official) (Outdated)
• Cubesat Wiki Most up-to-date website