CP6

CP6 at a Glance


  • Satellite Name: CP6
  • School: California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo
  • Mission Attitude Determination and Control using 2-Axis Magnetometers and Magnetorquers
  • Secondary Mission Electron collection experiment by Naval Research Laboratory
  • Launch Date: May 19th, 2009
  • Comm Frequency: 437.365 MHz
  • Modulation: FSK on SSB, the satellite was tuned to 437.365 LSB
  • Comm Output Power: ~1W
  • Project Status: CP6 is not beaconing. We are trying to diagnose the problem.







Project History

CP6 development started when it was discovered that CP3 had low receive sensitivity issues. The backup flight unit of CP3 has since been modified with an LNA on the radio to increase uplink reliability, more robust software, and the addition of a secondary payload experiment built by NRL. The resulting satellite has been named CP6 and is now ready for launch.

Mission

The primary mission of CP6 is to implement an attitude control system using only magnetic torquers embedded within the side panels. Attitude determination is performed using two-axis magnetometers on each side panel as well as observation imagers on the payload face.

Once the primary objectives have been met, a command will be sent to deploy the secondary payload that consists of a series of spring steel tapes. The data will be used to guide the future design of an electrodynamic tether.

Launch

CP6 has been launched. See NASA's Tacsat-3 site for more information.

Have an Earth Station? Listen to CP6!

Learn about our operations database and grab our packet parsing software.

Download this wave file for an example of CP6's beacon.

Click here for the beacon data format.

TLE

Currently using NORAD #35003 which is now correctly labeled. It seems to follow the predicted doppler better than our previously used #35004.

First Beacon

Audio Wave file

Parsed Data

QSL Card

The PolySat team is extremely grateful for the time and energy that has been dedicated by amateur radio operators around the world. If you are one of those who have heard our satellite at your station, please send us an email with your call sign and the mailing address you would like your QSL card sent to.