CUTE 1.7 + APD (CO 56, CubeSat-OSCAR 56)

CUTE 1.7 [LSS]

CUTE-1.7 (Cubical TITech Engineering Satellite) is a follow-on CubeSat project to CUTE-1 (launch 30 June 2003 and operational as of 2005) developed mainly by students of LSS (Laboratory for Space Systems) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.

Overall project goals call for:

• the demonstration of new design technologies, and
• sharing of experiment opportunities with other institutes.

The CUTE-1.7 design depends on commercially finished products rather than only on commercial grade electric components. Specific mission goals are:

• Demonstration of PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) as an onboard computer
• Attitude control experiment using magnetic torquer
• Amateur radio service - digital repeater (digipeater)
• Demonstration of APD (Avalanche Photo Diode) sensor
• Tether deployment experiment

The double-cube satellite configuration conforms to the CubeSat standard in size (10 cm × 10 cm × 20 cm). The spacecraft design makes use of the so-called "SatelliteCore" concept, containing a functionally integrated bus system (for re-use on other systems). The SatelliteCore provides electrical power (3.3 V, 5 V, and unregulated) and USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection functions. This new SatelliteCore container is based on the CubeSat standard. The new SatelliteCore concept is intended to optimize cost and time of repetitive chores. However, the combination of the SatelliteCore container plus a mission/instrument container requires at least a double cube implementation for a mission.

Cute-1.7 + APD was launched as a sub-payload on the 3rd stage of Japanese solid rocket M-5 in February, 2006. The main satellite is Astro F.
The planned orbit of Cute-1.7 + APD is 250-280 km in perigee height and 750 km in apogee height, so lifetime of Cute-1.7 + APD is estimated much less than one year for the shortest due to atmospheric reentry. The exact lifetime is dependent on the actual rocket flight condition and atmospheric density.

The satellite was successfully deployed in orbit, but no signals were received.