Small Satellite Research Laboratory

The University of Georgia Small Satellite Research Laboratory (SSRL), or UGA SSRL, is a research laboratory founded in late 2015 with the goal of launching a student-built spacecraft into low Earth orbit. The SSRL is currently building the University of Georgia's first two satellites. The lab has a Space Act Agreement with the NASA Ames Research Center.[3][4]

UGA Small Satellite Research Laboratory
SSRL
Established2015 (2015)[1]
Research typeRemote Sensing, Cube Satellite Development, Spectral Sensors
Field of research
Small Satellites
FacultyDr. David L. Cotten, Dr. Deepak Mishra [2]
StudentsCaleb Adams, Nicholas Neel, Khoa Ngo, Megan Le Corre, Graham Grable, Paige Copenhaver, Nirav Ilango, Kenneth Cochran, Adam King, Paul Hwang, S. Godfrey Hendrix[1]
LocationAthens, Georgia
33.948847°N 83.375237°W / 33.948847; -83.375237
30602
CampusUniversity of Georgia
AffiliationsUniversity Nanosatellite Program, NASA Ames Research Center[3]
Websitesmallsat.uga.edu

Founding

At its inception in late 2015, the three undergraduate founders of the Small Satellite Research Laboratory envisioned it as a space company. Two of the founders had been involved in a previous startup as part of a UGA accelerator program. Their product, a large, remote-operated, 3D-printed telescope, achieved moderate success, but was overshadowed by the work which ultimately became the foundation of the SSRL. After winning the Virginia Tech Hacks Hackathon, they left the previous startup company.[5] The founding trio initially planned to build a small satellite crowdfunded on Kickstarter, but as the project developed, rapid increases in scope and complexity drove the founders to seek more people and new sources of funding. Currently, the lab works with NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory to construct two 3U CubeSats to be deployed into low Earth orbit.[6] The SSRL now consists of over 50 members, and marks the first attempt at a space program at the University of Georgia.[7] The SSRL has stated that it plans to become the university's premier space program, and to establish the school's continual presence in space.[8] This will make the University of Georgia one of the first institutions in the state of Georgia to send a complete satellite into space.[9][10]

Cube Satellites

The Spectral Ocean Color (SPOC) Satellite

SPOC
Mission typeClimate Research
OperatorUGA Small Satellite Research Laboratory
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass3.99 kilograms (8.8 lb)
Dimensions10cm x 10cm x 34.05cm
Main telescope
Wavelengths400nm–900nm
Instruments
Hyperspectral Sensor
 

The Spectral Ocean Color Satellite, known as the SPOC satellite, is a 3U CubeSat that will be the University of Georgia's first satellite.[11] The SPOC satellite was selected in by the NASA's Undergraduate Student Instrument Project and NASA's eight CubeSat Launch Initiative to be built in 2016-2018 and launched in 2018, 2019, or 2020.[10][12] SPOC is expected to be deployed from the International Space Station from the NanoRacks Cube-satellite Deployer.[11]

The primary objective of the SPOC Satellite mission is to perform the first moderate resolution multispectral analysis of the following phenomena off the Georgia coast from low earth orbit: vegetation heath, primary productivity, ocean productivity, near-coastal sediment, organic matter, and mapping the production of shelf waters and salt marshes. The SSRL also seeks to build a unique Georgia coastal imagery library that aggregates and classifies all gathered data from SPOC.[13] The SPOC mission's data will supplement the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research Program's data with data of Sapelo Island from orbit. The data sets generated by the SPOC satellite will be comparable to NASA's MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite from the spectral ranges of 450nm - 900nm.[14]

The Multi-view Onboard Computational Imager (MOCI) Satellite

MOCI
Mission typeTechnology Demonstration
OperatorUGA Small Satellite Research Laboratory
Websitehttp://smallsat.uga.edu
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass3.99 kilograms (8.8 lb)
Dimensions10cm x 10cm x 34.05cm
Instruments
CCD Imaging System
 

The Multi-view Onboard Computational Imager Satellite, known as the MOCI satellite, is a 3U CubeSat that will be the University of Georgia's second satellite. The MOCI satellite was selected in the ninth iteration of the University Nanosatellite Program, UNP-9.[11] The primary mission of the MOCI satellite will be to perform structure from motion (SfM) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and generate 3D point clouds on a landscape scale to generate Digital Elevation Models. This will be the first time a CubeSat has specialized in building 3D models using structure from motion. MOCI will employ customize algorithms for feature extraction, structure from motion, surface reconstruction, data compression, and oceanic anomaly detection.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.