FEDSAT
in scheme: platforms
definition: FedSat is an Australian scientific microsatellite mission, a 58cm cube weighing approximately 50 kg. It was launched in early 2002 from Japan by Japan's National Space Development Agency. The purpose of FedSat is to: Establish Australian capability in microsatellite technologies Develop expertise necessary for sustaining those industries and profiting from them Test and develop Australian-developed intellectual property Provide a research platform for Australian space science, communication and GPS studies. FedSat was developed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems, which combines the resources and skills of 12 Australian organizations. Contributions from each of the partner organizations are doubled by the Commonwealth Government, under its Commonwealth Government's Cooperative Research Center?s Program. The total budget of the Centre is approximately &#3660 million over 7 years, with &#3620 million of that allocated for the FedSat mission. Much of FedSat was developed in Australia by the CRCSS. Three of the six main payloads have been fully developed by the CRCSS, and the other three have been supplied by overseas organizations in consultation with the CRCSS. The satellite platform, the structure that houses and maintains the payloads, is being provided by overseas organizations. CRCSS engineers could have developed an Australian platform, but given the time available from project-start to launch, that was not practical. CRCSS opted to contract an overseas platform supplier, avoiding the need to reinvent established technologies. Payloads: 1. GPS Receiver: The GPS, Global Positioning System, is an American network of satellites that transmit radio signals containing time and orbit-position codes. GPS receivers decode the signals, and by comparing signals of up to 4 satellites with known positions, they can derive their own locations by triangulation. The system was designed for mainly military use, but now GPS provides many scientific and civili…
type: Concept

Navigation Satellites
type: Concept