Unisat-5

Spacecraft nº:

Italien spacecraft nº: 32

Launch data: Designation  39421 / 13066F Launch date  21 Nov 2013 - 07:10 UT Launch site  Do, LC-370/13 Launch vehicle  Dnepr Mission  Technology Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  600 x 648 km Eccentricity   Inclination   97.8° Period  97.0 min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• UniSat-5 (University Satellite 5) is the sixth satellite designed and manufactured by GAUSS group. GAUSS (acronym for Astrodynamic Group of University ”La Sapienza”) is a group composed of students and professors from the School of Aerospace Engineering (SIA) of ”Sapienza” University of Roma involved in education and space research projects. The team is managed by PhD and graduate students with the support and supervision of professors from the SIA. UniSat-5 design and manufacturing will involve also students and researchers from the Space Science Center of Morehead State University (MSU).
• UniSat-5 is a civilian scientific microsatellite and its primary mission is to test researcher’s home grown equipment in the space conditions, create heritage for the follow-on missions and provide hands on experience and training for students from different universities. The satellite, manufactured by university students and researchers, will carry four principal payloads:
  • GlioSat, a space biomedical experiment with the goal of investigating the combined effects of microgravity and ionizing radiation on Glioblastoma cells behavior, leaded by the Aerospace Engineering School with the support of IRCCS research center and Space Science Center at Morehead State University
  • A stand-alone system for high definition digital imaging. The purpose of this system will be to observe Earth’s surface, as well as space debris in situ. It is composed of a camera, a telescope, C-band & S-band transceivers. Every component of this system is a commercially available product
  • MRFOD, a student-built technology demonstrator which will result in the ejection of femtosatellites built to the PocketQube form cactor (under 400 gr) proposed by Professor Robert J. Twiggs (currently at Morehead State University). The femtosatellites Wren, $50SAT, Beakersat-1 (designed by MSU students) and QBScout-1 will be ejected from UniSat-5 using an orbital deployer called the Morehead-Roma FemtoSat Orbital Deployer (MRFOD) already boarded on EduSat.it satellite, designed by GAUSS
  • GAUSS CubeSat Deployer System, a student-built technology demonstrator which will allow the deployment CubeSats. The system designed by GAUSS will allow the in orbit injection of ICube-1, HumSat-D, PUCP-SAT 1 and Dove-4.
• Small satellite built by university students and researchers for GAUSS (Group of Astrodynamics of the University of Roma “La Sapienza”). Onboard equiment includes the GlioSat biomedical experiment to investigate the effects of microgravity and ionizing radiation on cell behaviour, and a digital Earth-imaging system.
• Unisat also contains a Cubesat deployer MRFOD (Morehead-Roma FemtoSat Orbital Deployer) - a student-built technology demonstrator for deploying satellites containing Eagle 1, Eagle 2, Wren and QBScout 1, PEPPOD CubeSat deployment system containing Dove 4, and a second PEPPOD containing iCube 1, HUMSAT-D and PUCPSat-1/Pocket PUCP. The small satellites currently remain within Unisat 5.
• Cubesats to be deployed from Unisat-5 were:
  • ICUBE-1 for Inst. of Space Technology, Islamabad.
  • PUCPSat-1 for Pontifica Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima.
  • HUMSAT-D for University of Vigo, Spain.
  • Dove-4 (3U), Earth imaging satellite for PlanetLabs.
    One of these may not yet have been deployed.
• The flight saw the launch of the first PocketQubes, ejected from Unisat-5.
  • The 1P size are 0.15 kg 5 x 5 x 5cm cubes:
    $50Sat (Eagle-2, 50DollarSat) from Morehead State Univ.
    WREN from StaDoKo (spinoff company of the Univ. Aachen).
    Pocket-PUCP was further nested inside PUCPSat-1 and it is not clear if it has been ejected yet.
  • 2.5P PocketQubes deployed were:
    BeakerSat (Eagle-1) from Morehead State Univ.
    QubeScout-S1 from U.Maryland/Baltimore County

Satellite tracking: