Running since: 2020
Number of students: 23
Management:
The Atmospheric Polar Transmission Alignment Satellite (APTAS) is the first student CubeSat developed at Luleå University of Technology. The project’s goal is to design, build, test, and operate a 1U CubeSat for scientific and educational purposes whilst paving the way for future generations of students who want to develop their own CubeSats!
Dimensions: 10x10x10 cm
Mass: 1 kg
Method of attitude stabilization: Magnetorquers
The Umbilical board is the top of the satellite stack and interfaces with our debug and testing equipment. It is also digitizing the satellite’s sun sensor signals.
The EISCAT Calibration Transmitter (ECAT) is the main payload of the satellite. It generates a 233 MHz reference signal which will be used to calibrate the phased array antennas of EISCAT’s Next Generation Geospace Rader, EISCAT 3D. Also this part of the satellite is made by our students, orientated to the requirements given by EISCAT.
The Camera is the secondary payload of the satellite and an of-the-shelf component that we have integrated into our satellite. It will be used to take pictures of Earth’s surface from above. These pictures will be used by LTU for scientific purposes.
We use a Step-up board to align connections within the satellite. This is necessary, as the limited space on board of the CubeSat makes the wireing a bit complicated. Also, this component was fully develope by our students.
The satellite is powered by the Electrical Power System (EPS), also a COTS component that we have integrated into the satellites design. It includes the satellite’s batteries and distributes power to the other components of the satellite.
A Transceiver receives telecommands from our ground station.
Onboard Computer (OBC) serves as the brain of our satellite and is installed on the Motherboard.
Antenna at the bottom of the satellite is used for transmission of the ECAT signal as well as for reception of telecommands.
ECAT board
Camera
