Providing project management for the project, the Core Committee is elected among the SEDSAT II team members. The primary task of the committee is to develop the project timeline by identifying important tasks and setting appropriate deadlines. Additionally it serves as the primary point of contact in all negotiations between external third parties and the SEDSAT II project.

The Core Committee is:

Ahmad Shah Hakimyar (Kabul University, Afghanistan)
Komal Agrawal (VIT University, India)
Jeffrey Rivera (Civil Engineer, Guatemala)

News from Core Committee:

The SEDSAT-II team used the annual SEDS International Conference and International Astronautical Congress as an opportunity for key team members to meet and discuss the SEDSAT-II project. Team members from Payload, Structures, Systems Engineering, Communications and Ground subsystems were assembled in the same country, for the first time since their meeting in Hyderabad last year.

The 3rd SEDS International Conference (SEDSIC) was hosted by the United Kingdom SEDS chapter and included delegates and speakers from a multitude of nations, from the United States to Kuwait. Core committee member Tom Nordheim delivered a presentation on some of the key technical aspects of the project as well as a short review of the current state and progress of the project.

The 59th International Astronautical Congress offered the SEDSAT-II members an opportunity to showcase the project to the international aerospace community, through stand space that was generously provided by UKSEDS. The congress also served as an excellent opportunity for the SEDSAT-II team to review the current subsystem designs and to perform some long-awaited systems integration.

The whole SEDSAT-II team is now busy at work implementing and building upon the groundwork that was laid down at the conference. A report detailing the Glasgow discussion can be found here(link).

In a student project such as SEDSAT-II there is always the need for an infusion of new recruits as existing members become swamped by other academic commitments or graduate, or even to simply supplement the existing knowledge base within the project. It is important the integrity of the project’s timeline not be compromised, and it is for this reason that we have, on several occasions in the past, initiated recruitment drives. We believe that the time has come again for a fresh influx of participants, both generally and particularly in the Attitude Determination and Control system (ADCS).

The ADCS team is responsible for designing and implementing the systems required to efftively control the orientation of satellite. Currenty the team is looking into attitude determination using magnetometers as well as earth sensors and attitude control using magnetorquers. In addition the possibility of a secondary attitude control system using a new type of cubesat thruster is being investigated. More information about the cubesat thrusters can be found here.

The minimum requirements for the applicant to the project includes completion of at least one year of a relevant undergraduate degree in science or engineering. For the ADCS team it would be an advantage, but not a requirement, to have completed the equivalent of an introductory course in Attitude Determination and Control Systems. Other relevant skills include embedded computing, electronic engineering, aerospace engineering, physics and mathematics.

Why apply? Participating in the SEDSAT-II project, or indeed, any CubeSat project, provides students with an  opportunity to apply knowledge gained in the classroom to a real-world project, an opportunity that should not be missed for the advantage it will provide upon graduation and initiation into the space industry. The SEDSAT-II project, in particular, aims to provide this opportunity to as many interested students as possible, from a diverse range of educational backgrounds and nationalities.

More information about the ADCS subsystem can be found here.

An application form can be found here.

We are glad to welcome you to our new webpage. You will see that this page will update rapidly with the latest news from the SEDSAT II team. We would also like to remind everyone about our wiki-page at http://wiki.seds.org/index.php/SEDSAT-2.

SEDSAT II is an educational satellite project organized through SEDS Earth, involving student members from over 16 different nations and 5 different continents.

Held in the technological centre of Hyderabad (also known as Cyberabad among the locals), this year’s International Astronautical Congress was a grand affair showcasing Indian culture and space technology alike.

Again greatly aided by our highly motivated marketing and management team, we proceeded to familiarize ourselves with the professionals of the space industry as well as fellow students from around the world. Our paper was presented in a packed technical session, and seemed to be well received by the attendees, who asked several good questions. We also further boosted our numbers by recruiting several new student members.

At this year IAC we were lucky enough to manage to recruit a new advisor for matters concerning space regulations and space law. We all welcome Dr. E. Weeks to the team.

Set at the beautiful VIT campus near Chennai, the SEDS international conference (SEDSIC) was a resounding success. In addition to a host of distinguished lecturers this conference was the host of activities such as a lunar rover competition, rocket competition and a rooftop star party to top it all off. SEDSAT II was represented with 10 members including the core committee.

As for SEDSAT II this was our first chance to meet in real life, finally being able to discuss the management of the project and the design of the satellite face to face. This proved extremely fruitful both in terms of developing in the project and of finally feeling that we all belong in to an international group of students, working together towards a common goal (namely designing a picosatellite).

The students at VIT showed great interest in our project, resulting with the recruitment of a full team of highly motivated Indian students to our project. This includes a whole new Power team located in VIT and new team members for nearly every single subsystem.

In addition to this our new management and marketing team introduced us to the concept of management accounting to help better the efficiency of our project in addition to advising us on several key aspects related to the project structure and our work flow. Leaving Vellore was a markedly more coherent and motivated group and individuals than what had arrived there a few days earlier.