TJ3Sat

Spacecraft nº:

US spacecraft nº:

Launch data: Designation  39385 / 13064F Launch date  20 Nov 2013 - 01:15 UT Launch site  WI, LA-0B Launch vehicle  Minotaur-1 Mission  Technology Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  313 x 337 km Eccentricity   Inclination  40.5 ° Period  90.9 min

Description:

• TJ3Sat (Thomas Jefferson Cube Sat) is a small-size CubeSat developed (10x10x11 cm), built and tested by students from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. The satellite is the first satellite designed and built by high school students. TJ3Sat is joint project between the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and industry partners to design and build a CubeSat to increase interest in aerospace technology, as part of NASA's Educational Launch of NanoSatellites (ELaNa) program.
• TJ3Sat's primary mission is to provide educational resources to other K-12 education institutions to foster interest in aerospace through the successful design and flight of a CubeSat. The primary payload of TJ3Sat gives the students and other amateur radio users the opportunity to send and receive data from the satellite. Onboard the satellite a Text Speak module is used to convert text messages into an analog voice signal. Students and other users from around the world can submit text strings to be uploaded to the TJ3Sat website. Approved text strings will be transmitted to the satellite and the resulting voice interpretation will be relayed back to Earth over an amateur radio frequency using the onboard Stensat radio. In addition to the voice signals, properly outfitted amateur radio stations can receive state of health telemetry from the satellite. These data exchanges are available to the public and will become the main catalyst for education outreach.