Mission patch chosen

In order to raise an interest for space-related projects the TUPEX-3 team has conducted a mission patch competition. Fourth grade students have been asked to draw images for our mission. The winner's image has been stitched into a mission patch and will be flown alongside our experiments on REXUS-8 and then be handed out to the student.

We have received numerous interesting thoughts and beautiful images from our 4th grade students.

The team found it very hard to choose one image for our mission patch. In an extremely close race the picture drawn by Tom Schreger got chosen. He has shown some visionary insight since he is planning on building a house on the moon. The TUPEX-3 team wishes him all the best for this plan.

The whole TUPEX-3 team thanks the whole class 4b of Schule am Mühlenberg, Kröpelin for their participation and all the nice images.

TUPEX-3

The main objective of TUPEX-3 is the in-flight verification of a newly developed communication system and a sun sensor for pico- and nanosatellites.

The data transfer in future pico- and nano- multi-satellite systems occurs both between the ground and space segment as well as directly between the satellites. In order to make the above mentioned communication strategy possible, a novel telemetry and telecommand system using the UHF band is currently being developed at the TU Berlin. Implementation of an inter-satellite link between multiple units rises additional challenges compared to common point-to-point connections. The experiment is based on three or four identical radio modules, which imitate a multi-satellite system. During flight one module on the REXUS rocket exchanges data with the other communication units, which are regarded as "ground based" satellites. A connection between the "satellites" will be established, data will be transferred and saved with a time stamp. In such way the suitability of the communication system will be tested to enable an in-orbit cross-link between future satellites of the TU Berlin.

Sun sensors are used in astronautics to determine the attitude of a spacecraft in relation to the sun. The sensors tested here are based on a photosensitive device and are being optimized in regard to power consumption, mass and volume. A special feature of these sun sensors is that they determine the vector of the sun in the body-fixed coordinate system of the satellite independent from other hard- and software. Thus they can easily be integrated in different systems. During flight of the REXUS rocket, a data logger unit especially designed for the experiment will be storing data from several sun sensors and reference sensors for evaluation.

The integration of the verified systems is planned in future small satellites developed at TU Berlin.

TUPEX-3 delivered and ready to fly

Dienstag, 05. Januar 2010