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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September, 1999
Volume #4, Issue #1
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Announcements In Brief
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* Spartnik to return from Lockheed Martin after solar cell placement!
* Cleanroom construction nearing completion!
* Summer help keeps the project on-going!
* New antenna deployment design underway!
* Spartnik Team does outreach at several area schools!

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PROJECT MISSION STATEMENT:
* To educate undergraduate students in the process of managing and
developing a Microsatellite
* To prepare 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
  __________________________________________________________________________
How to contact us -
Project Director:
Prof. Hank Pernicka - (408)924-4054
hank@voyager.engr.sjsu.edu
Systems Engineer:
Ruben A. Garza (408) 924-8237
cassini@galileo.engr.sjsu.edu
___________________________________________________________________

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Spartnik Returns Soon!
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
 Spartnik will return from Lockheed Martin soon! The shell was there
to have solar cells adhered to the eight side panels. The design of
a box to safely carry and store the now fragile shell is in the final
stages and as soon as construction is complete, Spartnik will return
to SJSU. The top and bottom plates will also go to Lockheed soon for
cell application.

*************************************
Is Your Room Clean?
*************************************
 Design of the cleanroom in the Spartnik lab on-campus is complete
and construction is well underway. We would like to thank Carl
Strombom and Hewlett Packard for their donation of three flow hoods
and Jim Courier of Flowstar Corp. for his donation of C-frames and
labor to install the hoods and C-frames.  Construction of the walls
will soon be completed. This will give the Spartnik team a Class 100
cleanroom under the hoods, and the rest of the cleanroom will be
Class 1000.

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Web Site Updates!
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Our website contains newsletter archives, the Spartnik Executive
Summary, and several reports.  The ADAC Subsystem page even contains
an animation of Spartnik's tumble while in orbit!  Check it out and
see our new updates including biographies of Spartnik team members
and new pictures soon to come.
You can our web pages by surfing to:
          http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/spartnik.html

If any industry mentors who do not have their biographies posted on
our page wish to do so, please e-mail the information you wish to
include on our pages to Becky at rhouliston@hotmail.com

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Thanks From Last Year's Systems Engineer!
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WHAT A YEAR!

For me, one word really sums up this entire year for Spartnik - WOW!
Man, what a rush!  And on top of that, I have had the pleasure of
working with an incredible bunch of individuals.  Without them, this
project would have come to a complete standstill.

Let me see... there was John Van Arsdall whom did a tremendous job with
the software team.  He was able to complete his pacsat software and turn
it in to Jeff Nokes and even ran some testing on it, which was a success
I might add.  Also in the software field, John Robison turned in his
code for the operating system and is still working on the "shell". That's
two pieces of Spartnik's software done and ready to go. Woo Hoo!!  Work is
still in progress on AX.25 by Keiko Endo (Go, Cakes, Go!) and we have a
new member in the software team named Colin Southwood, a CS Master
student who is helping out with the file system and associated drivers.
Welcome Colin!  Another member of the team is Andre Scroggie working on
the computer hardware and some first layer drivers. And of course there
is Jeff Nokes who does his best to keep the software team going.  Well
done Jeff!  I think this year we have seen some very good progress in
the software development of Spartnik.  Excellent job software team!

John V. also did an excellent job as Lead in the Attitude, Determination
and Control (ADAC) Group.  He started some work on the equations of
motion (EOM's) for Spartnik taking into account the nutation damper.
And he also did some work and built (or sort-of built) a small test bed
for the infrared (IR) detectors that will be mounted on the +Z face of
Spartnik just next to the camera lens.  His test will determine the view
angle of the IR detectors as they "look" out of their mounting holes.
These detectors will be used to let us know when we are pointing at the
Sun, Earth or Moon for our pictures.  I have started some work on the
"Magic of Hysteresis Rods".  It's not really magic, just a lot of
complex math and dynamics.  But with the help of graduate student Irma
Franco and the expertise of Dr. Pernicka in the dynamics field, we
should have a pretty good understanding of hysteresis soon and even have
a paper and working equations for hysteresis in the near future (I
hope!).

The largest subsystem we have on the project is, without a doubt, the
Structures Team headed by Henry Martinez.  This year, the group did an
excellent job in designing parts and redesigning some parts that had to
be modified/changed.  The best part about this group is that it was
comprised of almost everyone on the Spartnik team.  As there was so
much work to do on this subsystem, everyone helped out in one form or
another.  I would like to especially thank Noel De Los Reyes, a member
of last year's team, who was very willing to lend a hand, not only on
the Structures team, but also on the Power team.  Noel was instrumental
last year in the design of and placement of the solar arrays.  Without
much of his help, we would be nowhere near the point we are now.  And
also, thanks to Pat Arriola for correcting some mistakes in the
periscope design.

Again, an excellent job by everyone on the Structures group and a
tribute to Henry for his leadership and insight on structural analysis.
Little does he know that I will have to use his knowledge one more time
regardless of the fact that he is graduating!  Hee, hee, hee.

In the Payload subsystem, Pat Arriola did an excellent job as lead.
He was able to acquire the "Micro-Meteorite Impact Detectors" (MMID)
for us.  He has also started the analysis on the Rohocell foam for the
camera with Noel's help.  Way to go Pat!

Although we were unable to acquire a launch vehicle or space within one
as a secondary payload this year, Pat Llanes, this year's lead for the
Launch Vehicle and Orbit Team, did an excellent job in keeping in touch
with the contacts that we do have and in picking up several new launch
company contacts for us.  Hopefully, because of his help, we will soon
find Spartnik a ride into orbit.

This year also saw a new subsystem come to light for Team Spartnik.
The Safety group, headed by Jennifer Krouse-Roof, looked into the safety
issues of Spartnik.  Would we fly apart and destroy a multi-million
dollar satellite or would we be safe enough to go up as a secondary
payload?  These and other hard questions fell to Jennifer and her team.
She and her team had to find all the potential problems that may
arise from Spartnik and make sure they were documented and measures
taken so as not to happen.  Certainly a very large undertaking!  Whoever
inherits this subsystem has their work cut out for them.  But it is
necessary to get Spartnik launched.  Uhhh, any volunteers?

The Power Group, headed by Mike Kenniston, worked on obtaining a set
of batteries for us to test and worked on obtaining microswitches
to power-up Spartnik once released from the launch vehicle.  The
microswitch dilemma was quite daunting and time consuming, but Mike
was able to find us a few switches to test.  And as of this writing,
the battery testing is underway.

Steve Calkins, the lead for the Thermal Group did a wonderful job in
working on Sinda/3D, a new piece of software we were able to pick up to
do the thermal analysis of Spartnik.  Although he was unable to complete
the task as it turned out to be a far larger and far more complex
problem, he did do a superb job in starting the models for us and
learning to interpret the data and passing all that knowledge along to
next year's members.

I know that there were other things that all the members of Team
Spartnik did during the year, as this was a very busy year, but I just
can't remember them all.  But the point is I would like to thank,

Steve Calkins, Henry Martinez, Jeff Nokes, John Van Arsdall,
Mike Kenniston, Jennifer Krouse-Roof, Michelle  Schoenman, Thuan Nguyen,
Pat Llanes, Pat Arriola, Jaehyung Kim, Noel De Los Reyes,
Dr. Henry Pernicka, and the summer high school students
And many others for a job well done.

As the outgoing Systems Engineer for Team Spartnik, I would like to say
that there is no doubt in my mind that I could not have worked with a
better team.  It was both a pleasure and an honor to have worked with a
great bunch of engineers who were not afraid to take on the unknown and
the difficult.  Were we able to complete Spartnik this year?  No, we
only advanced a little further.  But I have seen the future of
Spartnik!  I know the members of the incoming team.  And the future
looks bright.



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Back to the Future...
************************************
The Aerospace Engineering faculty has always stressed the importance
of oral and written communications skills. Spartnik members participate
in many presentations during the year. The Spartnik team visited many
area schools over the last year. The students of Independence High School
and Mission Community college, as well as three second grade classes at
Los Paseos Elementary School were all very receptive. It was an educational
experience for all!

The Spartnik Team also participated in Student Conference Day at San
Jose State University where the project status was presented
to students, faculty, staff, and industry visitors to campus.

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The Boys (and Girls) of Summer
************************************
Team Spartnik would also like to thank Michelle Schoenman for her
research over the summer. Her work for Team Spartnik enhanced many
various key aspects of the project.
Summer help also came from five area high school students. Project
Spartnik was very happy to have Rosario Gastelo, Joseph Martinez, Serena
Ortega, Tania Segovia, and Ciro Solis on the team and we thank them for
their hard work.

**********************************
Earth Calling Spartnik!
**********************************
 The GPS clock has been received and is being installed in our
groundstation. We are nearly ready to talk to Spartnik once it is in orbit!

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

@ ATTITUDE DETERMINATION AND CONTROL (ADAC)
LEAD - John Van Arsdall
TEAM -- Pat Arriola
Irma Franco and Ruben Garza are researching the nature of hysteresis rods and
their effect on the spin rate of Spartnik.  John Van Arsdall is researching
the nutation damper. It was determined that the nutation damper will be braised
shut instead of using a pressure fitting. The amount of fluid in the nutation
damper will be finalized when the research is complete.

The infrared detectors are being tested. The tests will indicate the voltages
produced by the detectors. The tests will also determine the useful angle range
of the detectors.

@ STRUCTURES
LEAD - Henry Martinez
TEAM - Jennifer Krause-Roof, Pat Llanes, Thuan Nguyen
Mike McCormick has only a few solar panels to place on the top and bottom plates
and then Spartnik will be ready for shipment back to San Jose State University.
The fabrication of the cleanroom is on-going thanks to a generous donation by
Jim
Courier (Flowstar Co.). The hoods and C-frames have been erected, and testing
will
begin to determine operation levels and possible flow stagnation inherent to the
design. Fabrication of the top plate is complete and it is undergoing
preparation
for the placement of solar arrays at Lockheed Martin. Other parts of Spartnik
are
in the final design phase: bottom plate, home plate and launch vehicle adapter.
To facilitate the design and analysis of Spartnik new computer systems have been
installed with Pro/E to facilitate the Finite Element Analysis of the integrated
Spartnik structure. Next year's team will begin the integration and testing of
the
hardware and software.

@ PAYLOAD
LEAD - Patrick Arriola
TEAM -Jennifer Krause-Roof
Payload members have recently purchased the piezoelectric strip that will be
used for
the MMID. Loctite 411 will be used to adhere the piezoelectric strip onto the
top
shell of Spartnik. This adhesive has also been purchased. The periscope is
currently
undergoing modification and is the current focus of the Payload group.  The goal
is to
have the drawings completed and the periscope manufactured by the end of summer.
The analysis of the Rohacelle foam is also underway. The idea is to take four or
five
sheets of different sizes, trim to size, and strategically place them on top of
each
other to eventually form a "brick."

@ POWER
LEAD - Michael Kenniston
TEAM - Thuan Nguyen, Steve Calkins
The search for microswitches is ongoing. The possibility of a design that does
not require
them is now being explored for lack of switches that are small enough.  It was
recently
discovered that Sanyo no longer manufactures the model of batteries that had
previously
been chosen for use aboard Spartnik. New batteries were selected from Sanyo that
give the
same power but are 1.6 millimeters shorter. Six of these batteries have been
purchased for
testing.

@ THERMAL
LEAD - Steve Calkins
TEAM - Michael Kenniston
Construction of the 3D model for the thermal analysis is underway using
SINDA/3D, the
graphical version of SINDA. The structure of the model is complete, and the
addition of
various heat loads is progressing. The thermal transducers have been tested in a
thermal
chamber at Quantum, through the assistance of Safety Team leader Jennifer
Krause-Roof.
Heat transfer materials to be used during assembly have been obtained, namely, a
thermally conductive grease for increasing the heat transfer coefficients of
component
interfaces and the space-rated epoxy for mounting the transducers.  The interior
of the
top plate has been painted with radiation heat transfer coating.  Current
projects include
painting the interior surface of the bottom plate, once it is built, and
completing the
3D model for thermal analysis.

@ LAUNCH VEHICLE AND ORBIT
LEAD - Pat Llanes
TEAM - Ruben Garza, Patrick Arriola
Acquisition of a launch vehicle is still ongoing, and many new contacts have
been made.
Hopefully Spartnik will soon have NASA sponsorship through the Access to Space
Group at
Goddard Space Center, although it is still too early to predict a launch date.
Dialogs
have also been started with the Air Force as well as with private launch
companies.
Graduate student Dan Coyle has completed writing a software application that
will enable
the SJSU groundstation to track Spartnik using only range-rate telemetry.

@ SAFETY
LEAD - Jennifer Krause-Roof
TEAM - Pat Arriola, Mike Kenniston, Pat Llanes
The Safety Subsystem has been building a cleanroom for the assembly of and
testing of
Spartnik. Hewlett-Packard donated three laminar hoods, and Flowstar Corporation
donated
C-frames and worktables. The hoods and C-frames have been installed, and walls
need to
be built around them to enclose the room. The cleanroom is expected to be
completed by
the end of summer.  The Safety Subsystem is also working on the safety document
that
will be provided to the prospective launch companies. The safety document will
detail
any possible hazards in each Spartnik subsystem as well as the measures taken to
design
against them.

@ COMPUTER SOFTWARE
LEAD - Jeff Nokes
TEAM - Keiko Endo, John Van Arsdall, John Robison, Colin Southwood
The multitasking OS kernel has been completed for some time. The other modules
must finish
before integration with the kernel.  Graduate student, John Robison, who wrote
the kernel
is also going to write the shell that will be used to interface with the users,
as well
as be responsible for all process control with the OS.  The PACSAT module
(similar to FTP)
is complete and currently being tested.  The AX.25 module is nearing completion
and is
expected to begin preliminary testing this summer.  Welcome Colin Southwood, a
graduate
student in Computer Science! We are also searching for new students to assist
with the
completion of the other modules.

@ COMPUTER HARDWARE
LEAD - Jeff Nokes
TEAM - Andre Scroggie
The onboard computer redesign has been finalized and the first round of
debugging has been
accomplished. With the recent purchase of parts for the wire-wrapped board, the
final
testing phase is ready to begin.  The analog board design is 90% complete. The
intention
is to send it to a board manufacturing facility straight from the design phase;
no wire-
wrapping is planned at this point. This analog design is being carefully
researched to
minimize debugging board runs.  Thanks to the current Thermal Team, all AD-590KH
temperature
transducers have been tested in a thermal chamber to determine accurate
calibration curves
for each sensor.  Currently, a parts search for the umbilical connector is
underway. At
the same time, data and power connectors/wiring are being researched for future
integration.
Ed Iskander, the graduate student who is researching Spartnik's radiation
patterns, is
finishing his preliminary RF research. Plans are to develop a software
simulation system
(similar to Lawrence Livermore Labs' NEC) that can be used to model the antennas
taking
into account the specific structural design of Spartnik.

@ GROUND STATION
LEAD - Jeff Nokes
The rotor servos for the antenna need to be recalibrated; it seems that La Nina
was rather
rough on the AZ/EL servo motor mechanism!  Integration of Spartnik's own
spacecraft tracking
system with our ground station has begun. A means of generating an orbit vector
via
measurements of Doppler Shift of the download frequency is to follow. Graduate
student, Dan
Coyle, has developed the mathematical algorithms and has tested it with real
USAF tracking
data (data courtesy of the USAF). These algorithms have been determined to have
sufficient
accuracy. The data acquisition system consists of a dedicated PC running DOS
that will read
a UTC time stamp from a GPS clock, while also retrieving a timed frequency
measurement
from the down-link IFCs (intermediate frequency converters) in the Yeasu
transponder.

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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 newsletter is distributed,
via e-mail, to the people who have 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
Lockheed Martin Technical Operations
Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver
IBM Research
Richmond Aircraft Products
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
Phillips Semiconductor
Teklam
Kajon Inc.
Advanced Industrial Coatings
Stanford University - SSDL
...for their contributions... Thank you.
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