CubeSat Kit

Work continues at Pumpkin on Pumpkin's Colony I successor, the MISC™ 3 bus.

MISC 3 improves upon MISC 2 (the basis for the Colony I bus) in many measurable ways, including a larger payload volume, a higher-performance ADACS, simpler construction, higher power and greater configurability and customization.

Within just three weeks of receipt of JPL's purchase order, Pumpkin delivered an all-new CubeSat Thermal Testbed (CTTB) to JPL for use at JPL in thermal analyses of CubeSats. The CTTB combines a MISC 2 structure with a 48-cell PMDSAS™ deployed solar array and twin PC/104 dc/dc converters, whose regulated dc power is delivered to a standard Colony I CubeSat payload volume of approximately 1500cc.

Additionally, JPL has taken delivery of multiple CubeSat Kits of various flavors for CubeSat development.

The NROL-36 launch of an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg AFB also carried multiple CubeSats deployed from the Naval Postgraduate Schools NPSCuL deployer. Among the 11 CubeSats on this launch are three based on Pumpkin's CubeSat Kit:

• USC's Aeneas, a cargo-container tracking nanosat based on Pumpkin's Colony I bus (C1B)
• UC Berkeley's CINEMA, based on a Pumpkin 3U CubeSat Kit
• CU Boulder's CSSWE, based on a Pumpkin 3U CubeSat Kit

Pumpkin was in booth #16 at the 26th annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites that took place in Logan, Utah August 13-16, 2012. Immediately prior to the conference, Pumpkin was at the CubeSat Summer Workshop, with two presentations.

Pumpkin's products -- including CubeSat structures, electronics and nanosat-class solar arrays, were shown in various booths throughout the conference. Additionally, Pumpkin demonstrated the Hemispherical Anti-Twist Tracking System (HATTS), as well as a prototype deorbit module from partner Digital Solid-State Propulsion (DSSP).

As part of its Edison thrust in support of small satellites and related state-of-the-art technology, NASA announed that one of the three Edison winners is JPL's Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (ISARA) proposal. ISARA will demonstrate a high-bandwidth Ka-band CubeSat communications capability at 100Mbps by using the back of its solar array as a reflector for the antenna. ISARA will be based on Pumpkin's upcoming MISC 3 bus and will utilize Pumpkin's PMDSAS™ depolyable solar array technology. ISARA will be funded at approximately $5.5M with launch expected in 2 years.

Jeroen Rotteveel reports that the "... nanosatellite Delfi-C3 is now 4 years in orbit and still alive and kicking! This 3-unit CubeSat, developed by the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands has been largely developed by students and performed technology demonstration experiments for the space industry in the Netherlands. After being launched on PSLV-C9 in 2008 it has been circling the earth for 1461 days (exceeding its design lifetime with 1371 days)! The satellite still broadcasts its telemetry and measurement data which can be received using simple amateur radio equipment and using the RASCAL software."

Delfi-C3 utilizes a Rev C CubeSat Kit 3U solid-wall structure and a REV C FM430 for C&DH. More information at the Defli-C3 website.

Pumpkin will be at the CubeSat Developers' Spring workshop, with two presentations.

The fifth generation of the CubeSat Kit's electronics architecture has been released and is now in customer hands. New features include support for a second Separation Switch and a dual-range high-power dc input connector.

Popular Science Magazine has released an article on CubeSats online entitled How Disposable, Networked Satellites will Democratize Space, and it features a Pumpkin 1U CubeSat Kit equipped with solar panels, as well as some notable quotes from people active in the CubeSat community.

The new code.nasa.gov website will function as a portal for NASA's open-source software development activities. Note that some NASA projects are available at github.com/nasa.

One such project that Pumpkin has been associated with is the NASA PhoneSat project. Another presentation on the PhoneSat -- again given by Mike Safyan KJ6MVL, this time at the 2011 ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference in Baltimore -- is available online.