UNCW's Cubesat Research Department has proposed a cutting-edge ocean color imager for significantly higher spatial resolution compared to standard satellite systems.
Develop a miniaturized multispectral ocean color imager of SeaWiFS caliber capable of flight on a CubeSat with significantly higher spatial resolution than standard satellite systems, providing observation of sub-mesoscale variability giving insights into mixing dynamics that are poorly understood.
High spatial resolution imagery would improve our ability to monitor fjords, estuaries, coral reefs and other near-shore environments where anthropogenic stresses are often most acute and where there are considerable security and commercial interests.
Due to low volume, mass and cost, it would become practical to fly constellations of spacecraft, opening up opportunities to significantly improve temporal sampling. The prospect of 10s, if not 100s of very small Earth Observation spacecraft opens up the possibility of achieving a plethora of science, commercial and military objectives.
Develop, construct, and test a low-cost, multispectral, ocean color sensor with spatial characteristics comparable to SeaWiFS, capable of collection of near-synoptic color data in open-ocean to coastal-margin to near-shore terrestrial environment.
The sensor would have the capability of collection of the 8 SeaWiFS bands and be designed with form factor fit into a custom 3U (i.e., 3 Units of 10cm3 or 10x10x30 cm) CubeSat; have spatial resolution of 75-150 m and swath of 250-400 km in a 400 - 540 km LEO orbit. It would be built using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) parts without higher level screening such as typically employed for longer-lived spacecraft instruments.
PI: Craig Clark
SeaHawk Cubesat design was based on a satellite bus similar to CubeSat UKube-1 (below) which was launched as a secondary payload on July 8, 2014 (15:58:28 UTC) on a Soyuz-2-1b launch vehicle with Fregat-M upper stage from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
UKube-1 [UK universal bus experiment -1]. Ukube was developed through a partnership linking Clyde Space (member of our science team) and University of Strathclyde with the UK Space Agency (UKSA), the UK Technology Strategy Board (UK-TSB) and UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK-STFC).
The conceptual system design for SeaHawk 3U CubeSat, indicating the subsystem classification within the spacecraft, is displayed below. The functional architecture is based upon the CubeSat Kit (CSK) PC/104 board format and the additional interfaces required by mission.
Our starting design was a modification of UKube-1. By working closely with an experienced CubeSat design team and profiting from "lessons learned" from one of the largest vendors of CubeSat parts and systems in the world we tried to maximize the potential for success of this Ocean Color Mission.
In addition, by treating the satellite bus and sensor subsystem as a single instrument package with close coordination between the Sensor Design Team and the CubeSat Design Team allows us to optimize the design of the satellite bus to meet the power, data handling, storage and transmission demands of the sensor, while using space tested equipment and a proven satellite bus.