Welcome

The Cal Poly PolySat Project was founded in 1999 and involves a multidisciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate engineering students working to design, construct, test, launch, and operate a CubeSat.

We are working to build small satellites that perform a variety of scientific research and explore new technologies in space. Innovative companies are designing space applications and experiments which PolySat can help engineer into reality. These payloads are taking advantage of the latest in aerospace technologies, minimizing mass and volume. PolySat can develop the technology and hardware to provide private firms and government a low-cost way of flying payloads in space. The project is currently accepting applications for new project members for the CP5 team.

Announcements

November 12th, 2009 - CP6 QSL Card Available!

Please see the CP6 Page for more info.

September 15th, 2009 - CP6 Status

CP6 has stopped beaconing. We are trying to diagnose the problem.

June 10th, 2009 - PolySat in Zero G!

Some of the team has traveled to Houston, TX to be a part of NASA's microgravity flight program.

Target Missions

The CP-BUS is geared for shorter mission life times of about 3-6 months, Sun-Synchronous Low Earth Orbits (LEO), and missions that need a responsive conception-to-launch timeline. Our use of COTS components allow for low cost development. Our facilities are equipped to put all of our designs through vibration and thermal-vacuum testing at NASA worst-case qualification levels to ensure the highest probability of mission success.

CubeSat CP1, the first satellite developed at Cal Poly, was designed with the objective of providing a reliable bus system to allow for flight qualification of a wide variety of small sensors and attitude control devices. CP2 was developed to provide a highly capable bus system that can support numerous small payloads. The concept includes duplex 1200bps digital communications, three-axis attitude determination and control, and substantial data processing and storage capability while still providing at least 33% of the spacecraft mass, volume, and power for payloads.

Prospective Payloads