AMS in the EstCube project
AMS Student Martynas Pelakauskas participates in the EstCube satellite project. His task is to design and check the power supply electronics.
ESTCube-1, the first Estonian student satellite (www.estcube.eu), is a student project which is aiming to create, build and launch a CubeSat specification satellite. The satellite’s primary mission will be to test the concept of the electric solar sail (www.electric-sailing.com) in space for the first time.
The novel electric propulsion technology based on the interaction of charged particles with a microscopic tether will be tested together with partners from the Finnish Metrological Institute (FMI), Jyväskylä University and Helsinki University (all from Finland), and the German Space Agency (DLR).
The launch of ESTCube-1 is scheduled in 2011. Currently the project is in the late stages of Phase B – first prototypes and work results of all the subsystems are nearing completion. The main subsystems of the satellite include the Electrical Power System (EPS), the Command and Data Handling System (CDHS), the Communications System (COM), the Attitude Determination and
Control System (ADCS), the Payload (PL) and the Structure (STR).
If successful, the project will confirm the concept of the electric solar sail, thus taking the first step towards a new spacecraft propulsion technology.