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INDUSTRYNEWS SOUTHERN STARS Introduces Satellite Safari and Update to SkyCube Project Southern Stars’ new Satellite Safari app is a tour guide to the universe of satellites that humanity has launched into orbit around our home planet. And later this year, it will become a personal gateway to a real orbital satellite from which you can Image 1 take pictures and send broadcasts. Satellite Safari is the official app of Southern Stars’ SkyCube satellite mission. Once launched, users will be able to request their own images of the Earth and broadcast their own radio messages from orbit as “tweets from space,” using the Satellite Safari app on an iPhone or iPad. While the Southern Stars team is waiting for SkyCube to launch, users can utilize Satellite Safari to learn more about the International Space Station and many hundreds of other satellites already in orbit. Satellite Safari will tell you where to find them in the sky, when they’ll pass overhead and where they are orbiting over Earth right now. Satellite Safari for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch is available on the iTunes Store. The app is universal for both iPhone and iPad, and requires iOS 5 or later. Satellite Safari for Android is currently under development. Southern Stars expects to release the app on Google Play sometime in April 2013. Southern Stars has also announced that Image 2 the scheduled SkyCube launch date of March 2013 has been changed. Southern Skies announced the SkyCube project in July 2012, with the goal of privately sponsoring the launch of a nano-type satellite, or CubeSat, which is typically used for space research. Originally, the Southern Skies team expected SkyCube to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in April 2013. However, for reasons having nothing to do with SkyCube, the SkyCube satellite has been manifested on a different Falcon 9 going to the International Space Station in September, 2013. SkyCube will still be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, but will now be unpacked from the Dragon capsule by astronauts aboard ISS and deployed into its own orbit two weeks later. SkyCube will not be the first CubeSat deployed from the ISS. NASA’s TechEdSat and Japan’s FIT- SAT-1 were among the first when they were Image 3 deployed in October 2012. Shown in Image 2 is an actual NASA image taken by astronaut Chris Hadfield of the first CubeSat deployment from the ISS. Southern Stars is working with NanoRacks, who is managing the deployment of SkyCube from the ISS via their Space Act Agreement with NASA’s U.S. National Lab. Southern Stars has been working with Spaceflight Services and NanoRacks to modify the SkyCube to meet additional safety standards for human spaceflight required by NASA. Changes include adding two more deployment foot switches Image 4 to the top and bottom of the satellite, as well as a redundant release mechanism for the solar panels. Image 3 shows how the solar panels will unfold after the satellite is deployed and activated. Solar panels will be restrained before deployment by cuttable nylon bolts at both top and bottom. Image 4 shows the configuration of the satellite’s solar panels after full deployment. As the SkyCube team explains, “A few more technical details need to be worked out, but we’re confident that we can resolve them in the six months between now and September. Getting SkyCube into orbit will take longer than we originally expected. But the new plan, to deploy SkyCube from ISS, adds a whole new dimension to the project.” The project was funded through Kickstarter, and there are still opportunities to participate by sponsoring the project for as little as $1US, which underwrites 10 seconds of the mission and provides the opportunity to broadcast one 120-character message from the satellite. Other opportunities include the chance to request specific images from the satellite. For more information on the Satellite Safari app, visit www.southernstars.com. For more information on the SkyCube project, go to www.skycube.org. <strong>Astronomy</strong> TECHNOLOGY TODAY 23
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