Texas A&M students send AggieSat 6 into orbit
AggieSat 6 will serve as an ear in space for teams on the ground to better identify where other satellites are located and measure low level radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere.
image: The AggieSat 6 team posing in front of the satellite before additional testing.
Credit: AggieSat Laboratory team
After over seven years of research and development, the student-run AggieSat Laboratory has sent the AggieSat 6 satellite into Earth’s orbit from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard the Minotaur IV.
The satellite’s primary mission is to demonstrate the use of space-based radio frequencies to locate other satellites in Earth’s orbit. Aerospace engineering graduate student and project manager Shirish Pandam calls the satellite “an ear in space.” Its secondary mission is to measure low-energy radiation in Earth’s atmosphere using a device called a dosimeter.
This project was built entirely by Texas A&M University students and was first supervised by professor emeritus Dr. Helen Reed. She oversaw the original student team when they were chosen to receive funding from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s University Nanosat program in 2018. Since then, it has been worked on by dozens of students and is now led by John Connolly, professor of practice and the project’s principal investigator.
AggieSat 6 — classified as a nanosatellite — is shaped like a briefcase with five attached antennas that form a circle on one of the sides. The antennas work together to listen for signals from surrounding satellites with an onboard receiver. Those signals are then interpreted by an onboard algorithm that is called Multiple Signal Classification to figure out the general direction the signals originated from. This allows ground stations and other orbiting satellites to find the satellites pinpointed by AggieSat 6.
For now, Pandam says his fellow team members are focused on sending commands to the satellite and receiving data in response to ensure that it’s working as expected before performing experiments. Once they move out of the launch and early operations stage, Pandam hopes they will be able to use it as a training tool for students on campus and beyond.
“Everything from the ground up has been conceived and design-tested by undergraduates,” Pandam said. “The amount of undergrad influence and impact on this satellite cannot be understated.”
AggieSat6 will remain in orbit for roughly five years, after which it will fall back to Earth and burn up on re-entry. Students performing mission operations are counting on communications with the satellite for at least the next year.
“We can communicate with the satellite until radiation or something else makes the satellite unable to do its mission anymore,” Pandam said.
Shortly after launch, Connolly confirmed that the AggieSat team has established communications with the project.
Anyone can follow the satellite’s path as the AggieSat students operate the spacecraft from their lab on campus.
By Marina Vences, Texas A&M University College of Engineering
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