Kentucky Space

Jeffrey Manber: Zero-gravity games

Former CEO of MirCorp, Jeffrey Manber, determinedly turns the conversation away from the hardware. He asked, what fun things can be accomplished? Sure, science and technology can be accomplished inside a CubeSat, but what about games of skill or chance? There is, as he points out, a proven business model for using entertainment to pioneer new markets. His presentation is short and to the point.

In response to a question about why not simulate gaming in a weightless environment, a young member of the audience blurts out "because space is fun!" and talks about how zero-gravity games could be held using real time space to ground communications. Point made.

Wayne

Robert Zee, Low cost missions at Space Flight Laboratory

Robert Z, Space Flight Laboratory, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, is up.

Programs include MOST, an astronomy satellite, the CanX series, and NTS - nanosat tracking of ships. NTS is passively magnetically stabilized.

MOST fixes on starts to gauge characteristics of the stars. It's pointing capability is impressive. Now imaging about 30 stars at a time.

CanX2 is a 3U with propulsion system experiment - it's not designed to change orbit.

He describesthe launch campaign, which uses Indian PLLV-C9. Space Flight Laboratory can act a flight facilitator and he invites other flyers. As for ITAR, if Canada sends technology to the states, restrictions are much less onerous.

He points out that XPOD and PPOD will accept any standard CubeSat.

Their sats employ S-band and UHF ground stations. The S-band is networked to other locations.

CanX-2 and CanX-6 are one month away from one year anniversary on orbit.

Nanosat space astronomy mission, BRight Target Explorer (CanX-3) uses nanosatellite star tracker developed in Canada to contribute to BRITE is only 6Kg. MOST is 53Kg.

CanX 4 and 5 will employ formation flying, which could enable stereo imaging, among other technical achievements. They will employ intersatellite communications and three axis attitude control. The bus developed for multi-missions is very versatile.

Have looked at generic nanosatellite missions to the moon and Mars.

Commercial future for these sats? Work left in miniaturization and power reduction technology. De-orbiting requirement, efficient propulsion systems needed.

Flight Laboratory, Funding comes from sixty percent foreign. No funding from university itself. That's it.

Wayne

Business of NanoSpace

First presentation: Scott MacGillivray, manager of the nano-sat program at Boeing. Cubesats bring whole new value proposition to the business of space, providing a standardized, inexpensive platform that shifts market economics. Cubesats offer provide a technology testbeds - in dollars per kilogram, they open up more testable propositions.

Other missions, Earth inspection missions, situational awareness, large arrays and formations, specialized space science. Cost for failure is lowered. Money can be put into more sats, not redundancy for single, larger sat.

MacGillivray describes trade offs between processing power, attitude control, common bandwidth, electoral power and mission life using a spider diagram.

Customers are beginning to take a second look at the platform. In response to question about five year projection of launch costs and availability, he describes some ride-share opportunities, but points out that a cultural shift is also underway in the traditional launch market.

Wayne

Emerging Commerical Applications for Small Satellites

As a reminder, look for updates here and from the Kentucky Space Twitter timeline from the Emerging Commercial Applications for Small Satellites conference tomorrow.

Wayne