TSAT - 4: Proud winner of the 2018 Canadian Satellite Design Challenge

Founded in 2010, UMSATS’ CubeSats division is an interdisciplinary team of undergraduate as well as graduate students that design and build a 3U nanosatellite. 

Team Meeting Times

ADCS on Tuesdays at 6:00 pm

Payload on Sundays at 10:30 am

Competition

The Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC) is a Canada-wide competition with select guest universities across the world focused to design, build, test, and launch of a 3U cubesat into lower earth orbit. The competition has three phases: Preliminary Design Review (PDR), Critical Design Review (CDR), and Final Environmental Testing, and runs on a 2-year cycle. CSDC is currently in its fifth iteration of the competition.

Subsystems

Payload

The payload consists of the scientific experiment that is being tested in low earth orbit, and will determine the operational requirements for the rest of the satellite system. The current experiment on the latest T-SAT involved characterizing Anabaena Cylindrica (algae) in low earth orbit to explore their applications as bio-reactors in life support systems for long duration space flights.

ADCS

The Attitude Determination and Control system is responsible for controlling the orientation of the satellite in space as required by the on-board scientific experiments. It uses a variety of sensor readings to determine the current orientation of the satellite and then drive actuators to point the satellite’s scientific components to their respective targets.

Power

The Power system is responsible for implementing an efficient energy source for the satellite using solar panels to harvest energy from the Sun and charge batteries to drive the mission. In addition, the designs include smart algorithms to control the distribution of power throughout the satellite.

CDH

The Command and Data Handling system is responsible for the flight computer hardware and software. This includes designs and implementations of the microprocessor, accompanying peripherals, and the bus structure to communicate with the rest of the components on the satellite. The CDH system is responsible for the scheduler that runs specific tasks on the satellite.

tsat4m

Structure

The Structure for the satellite consists of the overall body as well as the smart placement of components inside the satellite to satisfy the launch constraints. The structure also deals with the mechanical implications of the antenna and solar panel deployment and protection of all systems during the launch sequence. The Thermal system ensures that all components on the satellite remain within their operating temperature ranges throughout the mission. The system uses passive insulators, smart placement of components, and some active components for delicate payload elements.

Communications

The Communications system is responsible for sending payload data to the ground and receiving commands from the ground station using Amateur Radio bands. This includes the design and implementation of the transmitters, receivers, antenna, and beacon for the mission that will use the 70cm Amateur Radio band for communications.

Meet the team

Project Manager Co-Lead​

Adam Garofalo / Adam.Garofalo@umsats.ca

Project Manager Co-Lead

Marko Kosasi / Marko.Kosasi@umsats.ca ​

ADCS Lead

Cody Auch / Cody.Auch@umsats.ca

CDH Co-Lead​

Daigh Burgess / daigh.burgess@umsats.ca ​

CDH Co-Lead

Syed “Abraham” Ahmed / syed.ahmed@umsats.ca

Comms Lead

Adam Garofalo / Adam.Garofalo@umsats.ca ​

Payload Co-Lead

Shaylyn Pelikys / Shaylyn.Pelikys@umsats.ca ​

Payload Co-Lead

Rushie Tyagi / Rushie.Tyagi@umsats.ca

Power Lead

Emma Lowen / Emma.Lowen@umsats.ca ​

Mech Co-Lead

Adam Nixon / Adam.Nixon@umsats.ca

Mech Lead

Joshua Bond / Joshua.Bond@umsats.ca

President

Megan Carriere / Megan.Carriere@umsats.ca

Treasurer

Josh Joseph / Josh.Joseph@umsats.ca ​

Business Manager

TBA

Program Manager

Erica Von Stackelberg / Erica.Vonstackelberg@umsats.ca

Document Manager

Nikolaus Reichert / Nikolaus.Reichert@umsats.ca