On Saturday 6 April 2013 students from the University of Warwick sent a CubeSat 30km into the stratosphere
Starting
from near Welshpool, the CubeSat travelled high into the stratosphere,
to over 30km above the Earth's surface, where the balloon popped and a
parachute safely carried the CubeSat back to Earth. The prototype was
successfully recovered from near Banbury following the 2 hour flight.
The
CubeSat carried three cameras and a radio communications link to
transmit data and images. The transceiver used was a XBee-PRO 868
operating in the licence exempt 868 MHz band (the UK amateur radio
licence prohibits aeronautical operation).
“The
successful test launch - and recovery - is said to pave the way towards
a longer-term plan to put a small satellite, built almost entirely by
undergraduate students in the School of Engineering, into low-earth
orbit at around 2,000 km”,
“The
eight students have been working for the past year on the Warwick
University Satellite (WUSAT) Project, which has been building a 10cm
CubeSat capable of carrying equipment including cameras and sensors.”
Read the article in The Engineer - http://www.theengineer.co.uk/channels/skills-and-careers/news/balloon-launch-for-students-prototype-satellite/1016026.article
WUSAT Warwick University Satellite Project - http://www.warwick.ac.uk/cubesat
WUSAT Winter 2013 Newsletter - http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/meng/wusat/media/wusat_newsletter_2013_winter.pdf
