Back in April , the first three Australian - built satellites launched in 15 year all ab initio failed to deploy aright . However , a combination of impertinent diagnosis , external teamwork , and amateur assistance has fancy two of them successfully rebooted . Given the petite size of Australia ’s space endeavors , the squad responsible is understandably both thrilled and relieved , although some may consider their comparison of the operation to one of the high spot of the space backwash a trivial over the top .
On April 19 , 28 satellites weigh less than 2 kilograms ( 4 pounds ) were launched from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station , where they were released in group of three . Known as " cubesats " , these pocket-size satellites are part of theQB50 project . They come from 18 countries and will be independently operate while collaborating to meditate the lower thermosphere – the area above the atmosphere 200 - 380 kilometers ( 320 - 600 miles ) above the Earth ’s open . A further eight cubesats were launched by other way , and 14 more will be added later .
It is hoped the task will prove the potency of belittled , low - cost satellites to harness important scientific doubt . However , things started badly when no signal was detected from the three Australian orbiter in the mission , along with many of the others .
“ It was like something out of Apollo 13 , ” saidDr Elias Aboutanios , labor leader for UNSW - EC0 , the first orbiter the infinite station deployed , in astatement . “ Our satellite was orbiting at 27,000 kilometre / h ( 17,000 miles per hour ) almost 400 kilometers ( 250 mile ) above our heads . We could n’t see it , could n’t inspect it , and had almost no data to work with . So we were busting our heads trying to visualize out what could have go wrong , and how to find touch . ”
Before QB50 , Australia had only launched two dwelling - made satellites , the last of these in 2002 . There is no coordinated plan to address this and some Aussies revere the ultimate indignity of seeing New Zealandpass themin the space raceway . The billet hurt .
The Australian Center for Space and Engineering Research ( ACSER ) was responsible for for two of these orbiter and decided the most likely campaign of the problem was the bankruptcy of antenna to extend after deployment . This , in turn , was find fault on battery that had fire over the nine months the planet had wait to be charge into orbit . The satellites ' solar panels should have mend that , but the ACSER squad feared the panels ' vigour was being waste trying to reorientate the satellites and extend their antennas before enough could be saved to do the line of work properly .
The cubesats needed to be reprogrammed to power down and look for the batteries to fully charge , but how could the direction be have through unextended antennas ?
To get out of this vicious circle , the team needed a more powerful tuner - scope , one capable of find the weak signal sent by an unextended aerial , and bear on a message back with enough power for the QB50 satellites to incur . Such equipment is rarified , and usually otherwise busy , but one instance is the Dwingeloo wireless telescope , built in the fifties and taken over by amateur when its professional day were done . wakeless technician Jan van Muiklwijk offered to operate Dwingeloo for ACSER , but could only do it on weekends .
Van Muiklwijk managed to detect a weak signal from one of the satellites , INSPIRE-2 , and institutionalize the instructions . The following day INSPIRE-2 was find to be mesh as intended , with a signaling strong enough to be detected by ham radio operators , let alone ACSER ’s receiver .
The other two Australian cubesats remained understood , however , along with some of the others . Eventually , the ACSER squad try out listening in to other satellites launch at the same time , and found the ISS had mix up some of the cubesats launched together . They ’d been get across The University of Colorado ’s Challenger satellite , but listening at the frequency for theirUNSW - EC0cubesat . When ACSER assay UNSW - EC0 ’s frequency for the satellite mark Challenger , they pick up a sapless sign , which they were able to promote to full strength by repeating the study done on INSPIRE-2 .
Of the 28 QB50 satellite launched from the ISS , 20 are now control as mean , but eight remain silent , admit the third Australian member of the team , SuSAT . Work carry on to bring all of them finally online .
