The primary purpose of construction of satellites at the University of Aalborg is to give the students engineering capabilities beyond what is normally achieved within a masters program.
History
Student satellite activities at Aalborg University (AAU) started in 2003 as a result of AAU's involvement in the first pure Danish research satellite, Ørsted, which was successfully launched in 1999. AAUSAT-II's predecessor was AAU CubeSat which was constructed in the period 2001-2003 and was launched 30 June 2003. The project started in the summer 2003. The construction of AAUSAT-II began in 2005.
Operations
After the launch on 28 April 2008, AAUSat-2 beacon was received at Cal Poly University in California but two-wayamateur radio communications could not be achieved as it turned out that AAUSat-2 was transmitting at a lower level than anticipated. After upgrades to the ground station were completed, fully functional two-way communication were achieved and continued with normal operations until May 2009 after a year of successful operation.
The ground station has remained in operation and beacons are received on a regular basis and AAUSat-2 is still considered operational - although heavy tumbling is observed (December 2009). Beacons are still received on regular basis in March 2011. In addition, AAUSat-2 does receive and acknowledge commands from ground and log files has been requested and received. Due to the very high tumbling (more than 2.5 Hz) it has not been possible to decode log files.
Below is a snapshot of the radio communication. On left side is a beacon, next a request for log is issued and AAUSat-2 reply with a transmission of the logfile. Notice the high tumbling rate.
In March 2012, the AAUSAT-II mission was officially retired by the project — but the CubeSat is still up and running. As of 2022, the satellite continues to function.[2]
Mission definition
AAUSAT-II consists of several sub-systems:
ADCS: Attitude Determination and Control System
CDH: Command and Datahandling System
COM: Communication System
EPS: Electrical Power System
GND: Ground Station
MCC: Mission Control Center
MECH: Mechanical System
OBC: On-board Computer System
P/L: Payload System
Technical Facts:
Dimensions
100 by 100 by 113 millimetres (3.9 in × 3.9 in × 4.4 in) CubeSat standard
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
