Sydney – November 20, 1998 – A team of Australian students are planning to build the nation's first amateur satellite since 1966.
The project, known as BLUEsat, is seen as a way of giving science and
engineering students practical experience to complement their studies.
Twenty students at the University of New South Wales in Sydney
are currently involved in the project.
BLUEsat, or Basic Low Earth Orbit University of New South Wales
Experiment satellite, has been jump started by a $10,000 grant from the
University. The team is actively searching for more sponsorship to
assist them in the project.
The students are hoping to model their satellite on the proven AMSAT
design. The satellite will be a 25 centimetre cube weighing between 10
and 25 kilograms. Five sides of the cube will be covered by solar
panels.
The principal experiment carried on BLUEsat will be a store-and-forward
packet communications system that will transmit on amateur radio
frequencies. BLUEsat spokeswoman Sarah Eccles said that two additional
experiments are expected to be carried on the satellite. "These may be
from academic staff (at the University of New South Wales). We have
already had some interest there." Experiments under consideration
include a CCD camera and a deployable boom.
Australia¿s only previous amateur satellite was the Australis-Oscar 5
amateur radio satellite, built by a team of space enthusiasts at
Melbourne University in 1996 . The satellite was launched as
an auxiliary payload by NASA with the TIROS-M weather satellite in 1970.
Eccles claims that the BLUEsat team will also seek a launch as an
auxiliary payload. One vehicle under consideration is the currently
unflown K-1 reuseable launch system, which will operate from a launch
site at Woomera in Australia.
Despite funding shortages and uncertainties over the final design,
Eccles claims that the BLUEsat team is aiming for a launch by mid-2000.
