Built by students at the University of Texas and Texas A&M, a pair of satellites will be released by the Space Shuttle Endeavor on Saturday, according to today's Austin American-Statesman. The mission is the first of a planned four for the two schools.
The goal is "to eventually build two satellites that can dock in space without help from humans".
BEVO-1 and AggieSat1 will test a GPS satellite receiver built by NASA, and according to the Lightsey Research Group the two cubes will have an interesting deployment:
The satellites seperate in a similar manner as MAST. The quarter-wave monopole antennas of BEVO-1 is partially embedded in AggieSat-2 inside the SSPL. During seperation, the antenna pushes on the AggieSat-2 with a spring force that is balanced by the AggieSat-2's antenna on the opposite corner. The actuation powers on the satellites and connects the antenna to the radio.
Wayne
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