CubETH is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

project. As of 2015, it is being developed by several Swiss academic and industrial partners. The

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

is a single unit

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

and therefore 10 x 10 x 10 cm (3.9 x 3.9 x 3.9 in) in size. Its main goal is to prove the feasibility of attitude and

orbit determination Orbit determination is the estimation of orbits of objects such as moons, planets, and spacecraft. One major application is to allow tracking newly observed asteroids and verify that they have not been previously discovered. The basic methods wer ...

with low cost

commercial off-the-shelf Commercial-off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...

GNSS A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are op ...

-receivers.

Aims

CubETH is a

technology demonstration A technology demonstration (or tech demo), also known as demonstrator model, is a prototype, rough example or otherwise incomplete version of a conceivable product or future system, put together as proof of concept with the primary purpose of show ...

mission. The first goal is to prove that low cost receivers can be used for positioning in space. The orbit as well as the attitude of the spacecraft will be computed on board the satellite and send to a station on earth. The post-processing of the data will allow a first plausibility check. In order to fulfil an external validation, CubETH will be equipped with

satellite laser ranging Satellite laser ranging (SLR) is a method to measure the distance to satellites in a geocentric orbit. It consists of an astronomical observatory equipped with a laser that sends ultrashort pulses of light. The pulses hit the satellite and boun ...

reflectors for range measurements from ground stations.

Satellite structure

The upper face of the satellite will be equipped with four GNSS antennas. The four side faces hold the

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s for electricity generation. A fifth GNSS antenna is mounted on one of the lateral faces. The communication antenna is located on the lower, earth looking face. The whole flight electronics is located inside the satellite. In addition to the five GNSS antennas and the SLR-reflectors, The payload consists of the GNSS receivers and the necessary hardware. The GNSS receiver chips are developed and manufactured by the Swiss company U-blox. The main advantage of these commercial chip-sets is the low power consumption and the small size. However, the chips are not certified for space applications and a

risk assessment Risk assessment is a process for identifying hazards, potential (future) events which may negatively impact on individuals, assets, and/or the environment because of those hazards, their likelihood and consequences, and actions which can mitigate ...

is part of the project. For redundancy reasons, the satellite is equipped with ten receivers, each antenna being connected to two of them.

Project partners

The Geodesy and Geodynamics Lab of

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

holds the scientific leadership and is responsible for the payload data processing software. EPFL and the Swiss Space Center (SSC) are in charge of project management and the realization of the

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts () (HSLU) is one of seven regional, public-funded public university, universities of applied sciences founded in 1997 in its current form. The University was called University of Applied Sciences of ...

develops the payload hardware and the ground station. RF and antenna-design is provided by Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil. Further project partners are HES-SO (academic partner), u-blox (industrial partner), RUAG Space (industrial partner) and Saphyrion (industrial partner).

Status

CubETH is currently under development. The launch was planned for 2017.Raumschiffchen vom Hönggerberg
''Tages Anzeiger'' (in German)]

References

{{reflist CubeSats Student satellites Satellites of Switzerland

Aims

Satellite structure

Project partners

Status

See also

References