Welcome

Welcome to the official website for the University of Victoria’s ECOSat team, competing in the Canadian Satellite Design Competition put on by Geocentrix. More information about the team and the competition can be found in the links on the side bar.

We are always looking for new members and sponsors. Please feel free to contact us with any questions about the project or getting involved in this unique competition.

Mission

ECOSat will be featuring a multi missions platform designed to facilitate a number of goals

• Mission A is to host a scientific payload with a multitude of experiments
• Mission B is a continuing mission to act as an Amateur radio relay in the 2m and 70cm bands
• Mission C is a proof of concept to adjust the attitude of a satellite solely using magnetic fields
• Mission D is a proof of concept to determine the feasibility of a high realiability low cost de-orbiting system

Misson A:

This is the first satellite to undertake such a mission. Diamagnetism is an interesting property to scientist, researchers and inventors alike as it could be the key to new forms of space travel, artificial gravity, and new light weight high efficiency motors. One goal of this mission is to stimulate activity in this field of material science in order for new developments to occur in the area of Diamagnetics. More information to follow.

Experiment 1:

An evaluation of the use of photon energy to modulate the magnetic moment of a fluorescing diamagnetic crystal e.g. Blue John fluorite. Measurements will be made to determine the feasibility of further developing a photon controlled diamagnetic accelerator for later experiments. This could lead to the development of a controllable magnetic gradient system.

Experiment 2 and 4:

An evaluation of the effects of background radiation and angular coupling of variable magnetic fields in micro gravity on movable and fixed sheets of pyrolytic graphite. This will use dual Geiger counters and a sensitive IMU system. A scintallometer may be added if time permits (Experiment 6).

Experiment 3:

A study of the interaction of an apposing polarity dual set of magnetic/ pyrolytic graphite bullets free floating in individual tubes under the influence of the earth's magnetic field.

Experiment 5:

Incorporation of a cmos camera to capture timely photos of ice conditions in the Polar Regions to monitor for possible open water conditions with melting of sea ice.

For more information please visit: http://www.agofuelcells.com/diamagnetic-Experiment.html

Mission B:

The purpose of this mission is to make ECOSAt an open source Amateur Radio Relay commonly known in the HAM community as an Orbitting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio(OSCAR), using flexible software defined radio (SDR).

Anyone will be able to use ECOSat for amateur radio relay use as well as time-delayed downlinks. This open source utilization, apart from benefitting the amateur community, is also a great publicity vehicle for current and future CSDCs. This will further heighten ECOSat project awareness as well as promote the CSDC.

SDR is they key reason we are able to provide:

• Dynamic data rates
• Enables high level changes to the system design in flight with software updates
• Proof of application, currently no Cubesats flying SDR
• Multi Channel Communication
• Multiple modulation techniques
  

Software Defined Radio is an exciting technology with a plethora of applications. As the technology is relatively young, this will be one of many demonstration for SDR applications in space.

By controlling all communications via software (making use of Software Defined Radio technology), we can process multiple requests simultaneously as well as have parallel communication streams to enhance the user experience making our satellite the preferred choice for amateur users.

Mission C:

The goal of this mission is to use coils of wire named Magnetorquers to generate magnetic fields that will interact with the magnetic field of Earth in order to modify the attitude of the satellite.

Magnetorquers are coils of wire that will have a varying current passed through them in order to generate a magnetic field. This localized magnetic field will allow each magnetorquer that is oriented in orthogonal axes to independently interact with the magnetic field of earth in order to cause a torque across the satellite to achieve the desired satellite attitude actuation.

Mission D:

The goal of this mission is to use Magnetorquers in reverse to remove energy from the orbit of the satellite in order to accelerate de-orbiting time of the satellite.

The system will use the magnetorquer coils in reverse as the coils of wire pass through the Earth's magnetic field a current is induced in the wire. When a coil of wire passes through a magnetic field a current is induced in the wire by dissipating this current into a resistive load energy will be removed from the orbit energy of the satellite.