Tokyo Institute of Technology students use Altium’s Protel® to develop innovative CubeSat satellites.
"Altium’s Protel allows students to produce complex, professional-standard designs and circuit boards without losing valuable development time."
Naomi Miyashita
The Laboratory for Space Systems (LSS) - Doctral Course
Tokyo Institute of Technology
The Laboratory for Space Systems (LSS) at Tokyo Institute of Technology has been developing revolutionary micro-sized satellites based on the global CubeSat standard, as first proposed by Stanford University’s Professor Bob Twiggs at the 1999 University Space Systems Symposium in Hawaii. Led by Professor Saburo Matunaga, students at the LSS use standard ‘off-the-shelf’ parts to create, and ultimately launch, the cube-shaped satellites that measure only ten centimeters across each face and weigh less than one kilogram. Their first project, named CUTE-1 by the students, was successfully launched in 2003 with four other university CubeSat satellites by the Russian rocket launch service provider, Eurorockot.
Key challenges
To successfully design, construct and test their CubeSat satellites students at the LSS face a host of challenges in a diverse range of disciplines including, mechanics, lightweight fabrication, component selection, ground to satellite communications, space craft testing and certification, and project management. While these development and construction tasks would normally be undertaken by professional satellite manufacturers, the students need to cope with all aspects of satellite manufacture while learning new technology and design techniques.
Part of this process is allowing for the harsh space environment during both the design and construction of the tiny satellites. The extremely cold environment places constraints on moving mechanical parts and the temperature stability of the system electronics. Circuit boards, for example must be extremely reliable and sufficiently compact to satisfy the size and weight restrictions imposed by the CubeSat format – this, along with the limited time available for the design phase, has placed high demands on the electronic design software used by the students.
Meeting the challenges
The ongoing success of the CubeSat program has demonstrated the dedication and enthusiasm of students at Tokyo Institute of Technology, who have progressively refined their satellite design and construction process. A significant part of this improvement has been the adoption of Protel®* in place of several incompatible packages used for circuit design, simulation and circuit board layout. The fully-integrated Protel license offers students advanced design and simulation capabilities, an intuitive easy-to-learn design interface and up-to-date technology featuring full FPGA device support. With Protel, the LSS students are able to produce complex, professional-standard designs and circuit boards without losing valuable CubeSat development time learning multiple software systems.
The results
Since the successful launch of the CUTE-1 satellite on June 30, 2003 the ground station at Tokyo Institute of Technology has continuously received telemetry data on the power systems and flight status of the satellite, and deployed on-board systems through uplink commands. The LSS students have acquired valuable knowledge and experience in the technology and operation of small satellite systems, while proving the feasibility of the low-cost CubeSat concept.
With CUTE-1 in operation for over a year, LSS students have embarked on their next low-cost micro-satellite which will feature a new design approach based on an off-the-shelf PDA and its peripheral devices. Named Cute-1.7, the new CubeSat project will use new methods of radiation shielding to further push the concept of space systems using low cost commercial parts. Other features include a radical Magnetic Touquer system that reacts with the Earth’s magnetic field for attitude control, a radio digipeater that’s open to the public, and a universal ‘container’ payload space for different mission experiments.
About the University
Founded in 1881, Japan’s Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) is comprised of the Ookayama, Suzukakedai and Tamachi campuses and has been recognized as one of the world’s leading universities in science and technology in the world.
The Laboratory for Space Systems (LSS), in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is dedicated to studying and developing novel space robotic systems based on large-scale flexible multi-body dynamics and control. They have conducted research works on reconfigurable space systems such as Reconfigurable Brachiating Robot systems to be tested on the Japanese Experimental Module of the International Space Station, robot satellite cluster systems and astronaut-assisted smart devices. In addition, Tokyo Tech is actively engaged in an international university cooperated development of a small satellite systems.
Protel provides students at Tokyo Tech with all the capabilities they needed to take their board-level designs from concept to completion.
For more information about the Tokyo Institute of Technology or the Laboratory for Space Systems, visit www.titech.ac.jp and www.lss.mes.titech.ac.jp