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          T H E  S P A R T N I K  Countdown...

     Your official newsletter from the San Jose State 

       University Microsatellite Design Laboratory



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                    March, 1998

                 Volume #2, Issue #2



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                 Announcements In Brief

            -------------------------------



      *  Brian Menges and Carlos Guadiamos win National AIAA

           Student Paper Competition! 

      *  Shell painted and ready for solar cell string application

      *  Lockheed Martin grants $10,000 to Project Spartnik to

           perform launch safety certification for Spartnik

      *  Mike McCormick named Mentor of the Month

      *  L. L. Grace Communications donates Kansas City Tracker

    
 


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PROJECT MISSION STATEMENT:



-> To educate undergraduate students in the process of managing

   and developing a microsatellite.

-> To prepare the students for successful careers in the

   Aerospace Community, by creating an industry-like project

   environment.

-> To bring the direct involvement of industry into the education

   process through mentorship and project alliances.



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_____________________________________________



How to contact us -



Prof. Hank Pernicka - (408) 924-4054

hank@voyager.engr.sjsu.edu



Systems Engineer: Jeffrey Lin - (408) 554-8540

lemond@pacbell.net

_____________________________________________



      +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

               Web Site Construction Continuing!

      +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Spartnik web site can be accessed at the URL



        www-engr.sjsu.edu/~pernicka/spartnik.html



The website contains newsletter archives, the Spartnik Executive

Summary, and several reports.  The ADAC Subsystem page also has an 

animation of Spartnik's tumble while in orbit and more are on the 

way.  Any and all suggestions about the web site are very welcome!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++





      ********************************************

             Briefings and More Briefings!

      ********************************************



BRIAN MENGES AND CARLOS GUADIAMOS WIN THE NATIONAL AIAA STUDENT PAPER

COMPETITION!!



Congratulations to Brian Menges and Carlos Guadiamos for winning 

the National Student Paper competition this past January in Reno, 

Nevada for their paper titled, "Dynamic Modeling of Micro-Satellite 

Spartnik's Attitude."   

  



SPARTNIK POSTER PRESENTED AT AAS NATIONAL MEETING



Team Spartnik presented a poster at the AAS National Meeting held

in December in Pasadena California.  Jeff Lin, Noel de los Reyes,

Robert Vickroy, Francisco Soriano, and Professor Pernicka all

attended and described Project Spartnik to the many interested

parties that came by the poster.





LORAL BRIEFING ANNOUNCED



On May 20th, Team Spartnik will brief Space Systems/Loral on the

Project's current status.  This will give Team Spartnik the
 
opportunity to develop their oral communication skills!





LOCKHEED MARTIN HELPING TO VERIFY SPARTNIK'S LAUNCH SAFETY



Team members will be working side-by-side with Lockheed Martin 

Missiles and Space mentors to develop a microsatellite certification 

template.  This template will allow any microsatellite to be launch 

verified.  Team Spartnik hopes that future Spartnik members will 

use this template to help design and certify future microsatellite 

designs.  Much of this work will be sponsored by a $10,000 grant 

from Lockheed Martin to be used to pay students to carry out this 

work.   Thank you Lockheed Martin!





      ********************************************

                Welcome!! Welcome!!! Welcome!!!

      ********************************************



Team Spartnik would also like to extend a warm welcome to Henry 

Martinez, Monica Watkins, and Daniel Barrere as new team members.





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     L. L. Grace Communications donates Kansas City Tracker!

   **********************************************************



L. L. Grace Communications has generously agreed to donate their 

Kansas City tracker card to team Spartnik!  This card will be 

installed in the groundstation in room 236 and will be used to 

track Spartnik and other satellites.



Many thanks to L. L. Grace Communications!!

   **********************************************************



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> PROJECT STATUS <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<



ATTITUDE DETERMINATION AND CONTROL (ADAC)



All looks good so far for ADAC.  Once Structures has designed the 

new spacers and the "washer" for the satellite, ADAC can proceed 

with the revised moment of inertia calculations.  The use of 

hysteresis rods to limit Spartnik's spin rate is still being studied 

to determine the number and length of hysteresis rods required.  

It was also found by one of the team members of ADAC that the camera 

will still point toward the Earth when in orbits with lower 

inclinations, down to as low as 40 degrees. 





PAYLOAD



Payload has been moving forward.  Copper braids are required to 

cool the camera in the insulating foam.  Graphs have been made to 

specify the required length and diameter of a cooper braid.  These 

graphs are of outer temperature vs. diameter/length.  Given the 

outer skin temperature as well as the inner temperature, specifications 

for a copper braid are then given.  The camera box has been fabricated,

and the foam to encase the camera is in the process of being acquired.





POWER



Currently the acquisition of space rated batteries is beginning.

Once these batteries are obtained they will be subjected to various

tests (i.e. shock and vibration) that simulate launch conditions. 

Also, diode selection is proceeding.  The solar panels will be attached

to the Spartnik shell shortly, and wiring will also commence soon.





THERMAL



The Thermal subsystem has recently purchased the SINDA thermal 

modeling program and thermal modeling of Spartnik is on schedule.

TCS is also calibrating the thermocouples that are to be placed in 

Spartnik.  A circuit to test the thermocouples is being built for 

this purpose.  Future TCS projects remaining include the painting 

of Spartnik's top and bottom plates and the application of the FOSR 

pending completion of the SINDA analysis.





LAUNCH VEHICLE/ORBIT:



As of this point in time, the Spartnik team has its feelers out

as far as aggressively looking for a launch.  The launch with 

OHB-Systems in Germany on a Kosmos rocket out of Russia is still

of interest. We are also in contact with three other companies,

Space Exploration Engineering, Rotary Rocket and Lockheed Martin 

in Denver.  All are promising leads and hopefully one will be our 

ride into space!





COMPUTER HARDWARE/SOFTWARE



Software:  We are currently testing the kernel OS and will be 

testing the File System ASAP.  AX.25 is predicted to be ready for 

testing within 8 weeks.  We will be trying to implement the PACSAT 

file transfer protocol and the camera module by the end of July.

We are currently setting up a version of Sun's X-86 software to 

simulate the on-board multitasking environment.  Time permitting, 

we will have someone develop a 32-bit Windows NT version of the 

groundstation software; in the meantime, only the DOS version is
 
being worked on.  With the possibility of a launch coming in

a year, the team is pushing extra hard to finish everything in time. 

Special thanks to everyone for their tremendous effort.



Hardware:  Thanks to Dr. Petersen, our revised main board design 

is getting wire-wrapped by students at UC Santa Cruz.  The other 

portions of the boards will be fabbed for the first rev.  Excepting 

a couple of revisions, we should hopefully have everything functional

and bug-free by the end of September.  We are still in need of a 

competent student(s) to develop the low power EDAC circuitry; hopefully 

we can get someone soon.  Dr. Petersen is also currently working on 

the TX and RX RF boards.  These are estimated to be first-reved by 

April.  We will finalize our parts procurement shortly, and finances 

permitting, change some of the "off-the-shelf" components to milspec 

radiation hardened parts.



Ground Station:  The groundstation PC's hardware has been upgraded.  

We are looking into getting this PC networked with the rest of the 

engineering building.  The ground station software is currently under 

development and is predicted to be ready for testing by the end of 

May (DOS version only). Other versions will take a back seat until 

all other on-board software/hardware issues are resolved.  We will 

also be testing the groundstation hardware shortly with current 

microsatellites that are already in orbit.





STRUCTURES



The Structures subsystem has a number of efforts currently underway.

A detailed finite element analysis is being carried out using the

Solidworks software.  The flight shell is undergoing final preparation

for application of the solar cells.  The designs of the remaining few 

structural parts needing fabrication are being finalized, including

the top and bottom faces of Spartnik.  Plans for a clean room and an

appropriate clean storage chamber for Spartnik are underway.  And

lastly, we are also working on developing a means to grapple Spartnik 

for integration into the launch vehicle.



}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{



         }}}}}  Mentor of the Month  {{{{{{

         

                   MIKE McCORMICK

                        of

                  LOCKHEED MARTIN



            }}}}}}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{{{{{



Team Spartnik has named Mike McCormick mentor of the month!  Mike 

has provided outstanding guidance and advising to the team in the 

past couple of months for the solar string application.  His insights

and recommendations have been extremely valuable.



Team Spartnik salutes you!  Thanks Mike!



}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{







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           *****Sponsor of the Month****



         Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space



           ******************************



Team Spartnik would like to extend a very special thanks to Lockheed

Martin for their continuous support of our program objectives.  

Recently, Lockheed Martin has renewed Spartnik's grant and contributed 

greatly to this year's financial needs.  An additional $10,000 grant 

was also recently announced for support of safety certification efforts.



Thanks Lockheed Martin!

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About Our Newsletter...



The purpose of this newsletter is to inform industry and universities 

about what is happening with San Jose State's Spartnik project.  This 

bimonthly newsletter is distributed, via email, to those who contributed,

sponsored or expressed interest in this project.  Feel free to forward 

this newsletter to any colleagues.  If you want to be added to (or 

removed from) the distribution list or have questions or comments about 

the project or newsletter, send the information to: 

  hank@voyager.engr.sjsu.edu



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SPECIAL THANKS TO.......



Over the past few years, many companies and individuals have 

contributed in some way to project Spartnik thus making it a 

reality for many students.  The team members and the Mechanical 

and Aerospace Engineering Department faculty would like to thank 

the following:



Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space

L. L. Grace Communications for the Kansas City Tracker

IBM Research

Space Systems/Loral

Applied Solar Energy Corp.

United Technologies Corp. - Chemical Systems Division

Optical Coating Laboratory Inc.

Shur-Lok Corporation

Satellite Power Corp.

Teledyne Corp.

Kodak

Logitech

Eagle Picher

Phillips Semiconductor

Teklam

Kajon Inc.

Advanced Industrial Coatings

Stanford University - SSDL



    ........for their contributions... Thank you.

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End Transmission -  Volume #2, Issue #2, March 1998

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