T H E  S P A R T N I K  C O U N T D O W N ... 

Your Official newsletter from the San Jose State 

University Microsatellite Design Laboratory 

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June, 2000 Volume #5, Issue #1 

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

Announcements In Brief

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* Update on solar cell placement 

* Cleanroom ready for use! 

* Spartnik at The Tech! 

* Spring 2000 Engineering Open House a complete success! 

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

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 Engineers: 

Rocio Duran - (650) 533-6185 

chio_taz@pacbell.net



Greg Rodgers - (408) 621-1236 

grodger@hotmail.com

___________________________________________________________________ 



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Update on solar cell placement - Spartnik is back on-campus!

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Spartnik has come home!  For over a year now, the satellite 

has been safely located at Lockheed Martin awaiting both the placement 

of the cells and the readying of the cleanroom here at San Jose State 

University.  But with the cleanroom now complete and the cells 

placed on the satellite by Mike McCormick, it was welcome site to see 

Spartnik back on-campus.  There is no feeling in the world like the 

one gets in seeing the product of one's sweat, blood and tears 

come to fruition!  And a million thanks to Mike McCormick for all 

his help! 



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

Cleanroom complete!

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



The construction of the cleanroom is finally done!  You can see 

pictures of the cleanroom on our web site under the subsystems 

link.  Spartnik now has a very clean room to come home to. 

Thanks to the laminar flow hoods, Spartnik will have a class 100 

area to sit on and be worked on.  The rest of the room will be 

class 1000.  The cleanroom is now running on a twenty-four hour 

basis so as to keep Spartnik as clean as possible.  The cleanroom 

will also be used to work on the optics of Spartnik as well as 

the computer.  Most of the integration work will also take place 

within the walls of the cleanroom.  Anyone interested in seeing 

the cleanroom or any of our labs for that matter is more than 

welcome to come by.  Give Dr.  Pernicka or one of the systems

 engineers a call or email to arrange a time. 



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

 Web Site Updates! 

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



Webmasters: Becky Houliston, Kiran Vemuri, Clayton Taylor. 

Our website is new and much improved from the previous one. 

It still contains newsletter archives, the Spartnik Executive 

Summary, and several reports along with an ADAC animation of 

Spartnik's tumble while in orbit!  Check it out and 

see our new updates including biographies of Spartnik team members 

You can view our web pages by surfing to: 

http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/spartnik

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 Kiran at kvemuri@email.sjsu.edu. 

Our web site is under a state of perpetual change, so visit often! 



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

Spartnik at The Tech! 

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

During the week of April 24th Spartnik, along with various members 

of the team, were at the Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown 

San Jose.  This was part of Spartnik's outreach program and The Tech's 

way of showing off the technology and innovation being done here at 

San Jose State University and the Silicon Valley.  The team 

displayed the model of the satellite and answered all questions from 

anyone interested.  This was a great experience for the Team! 



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

Spring 2000 Engineering Open House a complete success! 

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

 The College of Engineering Open House held on March 3rd was 

a resounding success!  Not only for the Spartnik team and the 

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, but for the entire 

College as well.  Hundreds of local area high school students 

embarked on a sojourn of knowledge through the halls of the 

Engineering Building.  Few things are more satisfying than seeing 

the eyes of young engineers to-be light up as they walk into the 

Space Systems Engineering lab.  Full of energy and inquisition, one 

can't help but to be taken up in the excitement of the kids.  But 

this is where we can make a difference in someone's life!  This is 

where we can show them that anything is possible as long as they 

are willing to work hard! 



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

A Note From This Year's Systems Engineers, Rocio Duran and Greg Rodgers! 

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

Rocio Duran: 

Welcome to a new and exciting year.  This year we have implemented 

the dual systems engineer position.  I along with Greg Rodgers are 

the current leads for Spartnik.  The dual position has been working well 

due to the great communication between the systems engineers and 

the rest of our team.  This new position has helped us get 

more involved with projects relating to specific subsystems.  I have 

helped complete our cleanroom in our Space Systems Lab.  We are very 

proud of all of our work and are glad to have Spartnik back and be able 

to use the cleanroom to it's fullest.  It has been a great experience 

working with other people to make our goal and send Spartnik into 

space.  We have great plans to make it possible to have Spartnik 

fully integrated by the end of he school year.  Our team has 

demonstrated sufficient energy, encouragement and support to make it 

happen.  But help is always welcomed.  Please don't hesitate to 

contact us and let us know that you are interested in helping out. 

As a systems engineer, I have also been learning many ways in which 

our team can improve and be more efficient.  We are certain that 

it can happen.  It will happen!  In the end, we will have Spartnik 

orbiting Earth! 



Greg Rodgers: 

It has been my privilege to inherit the role of systems engineer for 

the 1999-2000 Spartnik school year.  We have installed a new feature 

to the Spartnik team and that is the role of dual systems engineers. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working in this dual 

position and have learned a great deal sharing the great 

responsibility with Rocio Duran, compromising the design decisions 

so that all requirements are met and fit within the design criteria 

and spacecraft integration.  The 1999-2000 Spartnik team has 

responded extremely well to this new program as it has increased 

our accessibility, reduced the stresses of the position, while 

providing for a more efficient and productive strategy.  Of course,
 
it has only been successful due to the communication between Rocio 

and myself and even more, through the communication of our team 

members and subsystems.  The team's individual progress and 

contributions follow.  Their hard work and dedication has taken our 

team to Washington D.C. twice, specifically for the search 

of a launch vehicle.  Spartnik has traveled to Pasadena to further 

enhance our outreach program to members of industry.  The list goes 

on and as the team has progressed so to has its productivity and 

dedication in seeing the completion of Spartnik I.  I would like to 

personally thank all of the 1999-2000 Spartnik team for their hard 

work, their dedication and their commitment to completing, 

integrating, and preparing this bird to take flight! 



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



@ ATTITUDE DETERMINATION AND CONTROL (ADAC)

 LEAD - Billy Blanch 

TEAM - Emily Cronin, Tristan Pradelle, Ruben Garza, Irma Franco, 

Sajesh Giri, Kiran Vemuri 

The team is very fortunate this year to have last year's Systems 

Engineer, Ruben Garza, as a member. Ruben and graduate student, 

Irma Franco, have made a great deal of progress this year on their 

research, design, and testing of the Hysteresis Rods. Carpenter 

Materials donated the material and Walker Scientific, also free 

of charge, is doing testing. Emily is working to find out the 

voltages produced by, and the useful angle range of, the Infrared 

Earth Horizon Sensors. Tristan is in the process of designing a 

simulation to test Spartnik's attitude determination code. Billy's 

task is to develop the equations of motion for the nutation damper 

and then to determine the necessary damping coefficient. 



@ STRUCTURES

 LEAD - Norman Fernando 

TEAM - Emily Cronin, Paul Gregory, Tristan Pradelle 

-Mike McCormick, of Lockheed Martin, has placed the solar panels 

on the shell of the satellite!  We now have Spartnik back! 

-The cleanroom is complete thanks to the generous donation by Jim 

Courier of Flowstar Corp. and has already been in use for various tasks. 

-The "grapple" system, which will be used to safely integrate 

Spartnik into the launch vehicle, is nearly complete with two 

more handles to be made. 

-The bottom plate was one of the main concerns and has undergone 

changes and is now complete. 

-The finite element analysis has been going well thanks to the 

new computers and software that have been added to aid Spartnik's 

integration, and is basically complete, showing Spartnik to be 

a very sturdy spacecraft!

 -A new shock test and integration is what's in store for Spartnik 

this coming year! 



@ PAYLOAD 

LEAD - Norman Fernando 

TEAM -Emily Cronin, Tristen Pradelle, Franc Ragsac 

-The periscope has been redesigned by Franc and has been 

machined by College of Engineering technicians. 

-The foam analysis has also begun and is being done by taking 

foam and strategically placing it around the camera and periscope 

to form a "brick."  This will then be placed in the camera box. 

-The main tasks remaining for payload are the focal length, 

foam analysis, micro-meteorite impact detector (MMID) testing, 

and footprint determination of the camera. 



@ POWER LEAD - Robbie Singh 

TEAM - Norman Fernando, Paul Gosling, Rocio Duran, Sajesh Giri 

Currently, the Electrical & Power subsystem is working on the 

charge controller for the satellite.  Recently, an electrical 

engineering student joined Spartnik to help us design the charge 

controller as his senior design project.  The team is also in the 

process of designing an antenna deployment mechanism.  The team 

has come up with a novel idea of using muscle wires or shape 

memory alloys for deploying the antennas.  The memory alloys 

will be triggered by the computer using a relay, that in turn will 

supply current to the memory alloys thus changing its shape and 

actuating the antennas.  The antennas will be tested for vibration, 

thermal and vacuum characteristics.  The team has finished the design for the 

microswitches that will be used to disconnect the

 power of the satellite while in launch vehicle.  The team has 

decided to use NiCd batteries, and is in the process of obtaining 

space-cells from SAFT, a battery company in France.  The umbilical 

connectors have also been selected and necessary changes to the 

bottom plate of the satellite have been completed.  The wiring 

diagram of the satellite is going to be started soon.  Furthermore,
 
companies that sell space-rated electronic components have been 

found, and the components needed for the electronic equipment 

will soon be purchased. 



@ THERMAL LEAD - Teddy Long 

TEAM - Becky Houliston, Phil Canlas 

Taking the completed parts, in SINDA/3D, we attempted to integrate 

them into one solid model.  So far the results have been less 

than stellar.  That project remains on our list of things to 

accomplish.  Along with SINDA analysis, we have been attempting 

to coordinate with a Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Team 

on their SJSU vacuum chamber project.  So far the updates have 

been looking good.  We are establishing the signal and power cable 

requirements within the chamber in order for it to be prepared for 

Spartnik when we finally test it.  A thermal testing operations 

order is in the planning stage.  We hope that the vacuum chamber 

will be done within the next six months.  Finally, we plan to 

attach the thermal transducers sometime in the near future, as 

soon as we can get our hands on the satellite. 



@ LAUNCH VEHICLE AND ORBIT 

LEAD - Clayton Taylor 

TEAM - Billy Blanch, Emily Cronin 

The Spartnik Team is aggressively looking for a launch.  Clayton 

Taylor and Billy Blanch attended the Satellite 2000 Symposium 

in Washington DC, and Tristan Pradelle and Paul Gregory 

attended another conference in Colorado.  The symposia produced 

many new contacts for a launch of Spartnik.  We are also in 

contact with other companies, such as Access To Space, Rapid 

Spacecraft Development, Office of Space Launch, the United States 

Air Force, Kistler Aerospace Corp., Kosmos, Highway to Space 

Grants Program, Orbital, Sea Launch, Space Exploration Engineering, 

Rotary Rocket and Lockheed Martin Astronautics.  Recent contacts 

with Arianespace for a possible ride on an Ariane 5 have also 

been encouraging!  All are promising leads and hopefully one will 

be our ticket into space. 



@ SAFETY 

LEAD - Paul Gregory 

TEAM - Norman Fernando, Becky Houliston, Pete Mazanec 

The safety subsystem is working on the safety document that will 

be provided to prospective launch vehicle companies.  The purpose 

of the safety document is to prove that Spartnik meets all applicable 

safety standards, and will not pose a threat to the launch vehicle 

or any other payloads aboard the launch vehicle.  We will be setting 

up a safety committee composed of the safety team and a member from 

each of the other subsystems.  The members representing their 

respective subsystems will be in charge of bringing safety concerns 

pertaining to their subsystems to the safety team.  The safety team 

would like to thank Mike Jeung-Wesoloski from Lockheed Martin for 

generously donating his time and expertise to mentor our safety 

activities! 



@ COMPUTER SOFTWARE 

LEAD - Teddy Long 

TEAM - Keiko Endo, John Van Arsdall, John Robison, Colin Southwood 

The computer subsystem and ground station have been merged into a 

single subsystem, the Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C). 

Keiko has been working hard to update our AX.25 from version 2.0 

to version 2.2.  Various debugging software have been used, such 

as Visual C++.  At this time, AX.25 is at the testing stage, as 

is the PACSAT module. We have two new programmers joining the team, 

Robbie Singh and Tim Michaels.  Both of them will write the camera 

module for Spartnik. 



@ COMPUTER HARDWARE 

LEAD - Teddy Long 

Currently we are designing and manufacturing a power distribution 

circuit and a charge controller.  We have found electrical 

engineering students at San Jose State University to accomplish
 
this task.  Both designs have become senior projects for these EE 

students. 



@ GROUND STATION

 LEAD - Teddy Long 

We have installed the GPS antenna after fighting adverse weather 

conditions this spring (mucho rain!).  At this time, we are looking 

forward to having someone recalibrate the ground station antenna. 



@CLEANROOM 

LEAD - Emily Cronin 

TEAM - Paul Gregory, Rocio Duran, Ruben A. Garza 

Construction of the cleanroom in the Spartnik lab on campus is 

complete!  Construction of the walls and roof have been completed. 

This will give the Spartnik team a class 100 cleanroom under the 

hoods and a class 1000 cleanroom in the 110 square-foot working area.
 
The cleanroom was tested with a particle counter wile the HEPA filters 

were running.  Underneath the HEPA filters, very few particles of 

width 0.3 microns were detected by the particle counter.  We would 

like to thank Chris Jones from Cypress Semiconductor for bringing 

his company's particle counter and testing the air quality of the 

cleanroom.  We have purchased cleanroom supplies such 

as lab coats, booties, gloves, caps, etc.  Our main supplier is 

VWR Scientific Products. 



@MOBILE GROUND STATION (MGS) 

Lead - Billy Blanch 

Team - Clayton Taylor, Guillermo Munoz, Kiran Vemuri 

During the summer of 1999 Spartnik purchased a former flight test 

vehicle from NASA Ames Research Center. The vehicle is a 1974 

Cortez with only 18,000 miles on the odometer. Already equipped 

with generator, antenna mast winch, and wired for electrical outlets
 
throughout it is a perfect choice to become the Spartnik Mobile 

Ground Station. It will also function as a tool for Educational 

Outreach, to help raise the level of interest of Bay Area Students 

in the fields of Science and Engineering. Currently, the MGS is in 

the design and maintenance phase. Several designs of the exterior 

are complete and one should be chosen by the end of the semester. 

It has been licensed and its plates are "SPARTNK". Clay is doing 

some good work in securing an affordable paint job. Billy has 

purchased and installed quick release latches for the passenger 

seat that will allow for easier access to the engine when 

maintenance is being done. 

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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, please 

email Professor Pernicka at: 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 

Carpenter Specialty Alloys 

Flow Star Corp. 

Hewlitt Packard 

CSA Engineering 

SC Solutions 

Walker Scientific 



...for their contributions... 

Thank you! 

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