WREN: The First Satellite YOU Can Fly

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Wed Sep 11 04:40:10 PDT 2013


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1467273745/wren-fly-a-real-spacecraft-by-yourself

The only satellite in Earth orbit that YOU can control DIRECTLY ! You are the
pilot. Launch is this year!

Even nowadays space is not opened to the public, but we will change that -
this year !

We are four guys in a garage, and we have dedicated ourselves to open space
for everyone. For that purpose we designed the miniaturized satellite WREN.
It’s a so called Pocketqub-Femtosatellite. It has only 5x5x5cm³ of volume and
250g of mass, and fits perfectly into your hand, like a tennis ball. Despite
of its size, it even has real thrusters.

It can be remotely positioned by you in every direction and it has a camera
onboard for taking pictures from outer space. It will be released into a
polar orbit before the end of this year on board of the UNISAT-5 deployer,
which is launched inside a DNEPR Rocket from Yasni in Russia.

It will race around the globe every 98 minutes, passing every point of the
earth during each day, seven days a week, just waiting for the command to be
remotely flown by you.

System overview

WREN System Overview

WREN is equipped with a camera, a gyro and a magnetic field sensor. Those
three components will form an adaptive feedback guidance system which helps
you to easily navigate the satellite by your own by using its momentum wheels
and microthrusters. The camera is equipped with an image processing system
which can find the position of the sun and the earth automatically. This
technology will make the control of the satellite more easy. With the camera
system you can of course remotely take pictures of the earth, the sun and
other space objects. You can navigate the satellite directly in order to make
your own picture.

The communication up- and downlink will be performed at 437,405 MHz, a
frequency in the 70cm amateur radio band which has been kindly assigned to us
by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). Wren will be flying in a sun
synchronous orbit at 700km of altitude at an incredible speed of 7500
m/second, so that it will take only 98 minutes to fly one time all around the
planet. Practically, a link is possible for about 10 minutes from a single
ground station, up to three times a day. The mission control software is
equipped with prediction algorithms in order to predict the flyby- time
according to your location, so you can prepare yourself for the upcoming
communication window and take control over the satellite again.

We hope that amateur radio enthusiasts will join our network and provide a
link from time to time to use WRENs lifetime as long as possible.

Send a message into deep space

You can send a message into deep space. Of course it will be also receptable
on earth. Everytime WREN sends his status to earth, it will also send out one
of the saved messages.

If WREN survives for years, your message will be sent several times into the
deep far universe.

Project Status

The rocket launch is scheduled for November this year.

Wren is currently in the final assembly process and will be integrated into
the deployer in October this year, after the shaker test.

We will be helped out with a professional ground station after launch for the
first weeks, but we want to build our own mobile groundstation to be able to
establish the link for you anytime.

We will publish the plans for the groundstation as soon as it is ready and
working, so everybody can build it!

How do we get into space so cheaply?

Bringing one kilogram of mass into orbit costs about 50000$. Rockets must
carry their fuel all the way up, so the laws of physics make them big, heavy
and expensive.

So how do we fly so relatively cheaply?

First, we are light, about 250 grams. And we fly piggyback on a bigger
satellite called "UNISAT-5".  This satellite, together with some others, are
all stored in one rocket, so the costs for the launch will be shared
according to the mass. Wren will be stored in a deployment unit called MRFOD.

Wren will be waiting inside this MRFOD in the satellite "UNISAT-5" for his
release into the open space

The rocket will go up in November and will release UNISAT-5 and other
satellites. Wren will be released into space out of Unisat about one month
later.



Please Spread the message

We want to bring space into your living room. To achieve this we need your
help, not only by asking you for backing us with money but also by telling
the story to everybody you know who may be interested in space. We also need
amateur radio guys who would like to take part in project and follow Wren all
along its way around the planet by listening its beacon and messages you
pledged for, being heard. Our blogs and webpages, reports and videos are just
a few components of the whole message. You are the messengers, you are the
carrier of the idea of transporting space into everybody's living room - and
beyond! 



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