This week we received the first of three AmbaSat-1 Deployer modules. Many thanks to our local firm Prest Engineering for the excellent work in laser-cutting and fabricating these engineering marvels.
AmbaSat-1 Deployer 001 is destined for thermal, vibration and P-POD testing. Deployers 002 & 003 will be used for educational and demonstration events and shows. The first of which will be Space-Comm Expo at Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre later this year.
The AmbaSat-1 Deployer design is an adaptation of the Kicksat specification used by Zac Manchester and his team and consists of a ‘3U’ CubeSat measuring approximately 10 cm x 10 cm x 32 cm, with a total weight 2.8 kg.
The first ‘1U’ (10cm x 10cm x 10cm) section of the deployer contains the electronics, solarpanels and batteries to power the avionics. This ‘1U’ section also controls the mechanical deployment of the AmbaSat-1s and serves as the transceiver for communications with the ground station. During the deployment phase, telemetry data is transmitted to the groundstation and the AmbaSat Deployer also ‘listens’ for a number of commands such as attitude control and deployment.
The remaining 2 x 1U sections within the AmbaSat Deployer are dedicated to the deployment mechanism that holds and secures the AmbaSat-1 Space Satellites during launch and in orbit. The deployment mechanism can hold up to 200 AmbaSat-1s. Deployment is achieved using a spring-loaded mechanism which is activated by a nichrome burn wire system to deploy the satellites
References in this article:
Space-Comm: https://www.space-comm.co.uk/
Prest Engineering: https://www.prest-engineering.co.uk/
