Rincon 1 was a Cubesat

CubeSat

A CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that usually has a volume of exactly one liter , has a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms, and typically uses commercial off-the-shelf electronics components...

 built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

. The primary payload was furnished by Rincon Research, hence the name. Rincon 1 was the product of the work of about 50 students, ranging from college freshmen to Ph.D. students, over the course of several years. It was launched, after being postponed several times, on board a Dnepr on July 26, 2006, but the rocket failed and rendered the launch a failure.

Listening

If the launch had been successful, persons on the ground would have needed this information to be able to hear the beacons from the satellite.

1. The keplerian elements, in order to know where the satellite is pointed.
2. A radio capable of operating on 436.870 MHz, which will change with doppler shifting. There is also a beacon operating on 437.345 MHz. It is a very weak signal.
3. A 1200 baud AFSK modem, preferably a very low-end, that does no modulation on its own. Cubesat Groundstation uses a custom-built hardware modem, and possibly a software modem (using the sound card as an Analog-to-Digital converter).
4. The Cubesat GS software would help, however, it is not currently available to the public.
5. A good antenna system, the design of the antennas is not optimal.

Components

Rincon 1 had the following components included:

• 6 solar cell
  Solar cell
  A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
  
  s
• Aluminum frame - built to spin-stabilize
  Spin-stabilisation
  Spin-stabilisation is the method of stabilizing a satellite or launch vehicle by means of spin. For most satellite applications this approach has been superseded by three-axis stabilisation. It is also used in non-satellite applications such as rifle and artillery.Despinning can be achieved by...
  
   through sunlight
• Power board (used to hold batteries, maintain 5V and 3.3V charges, measure voltages and currents in several spots, and convert the power from the solar cells to usable power.)
• Microcontroller board, which is used to gather and transmit telemetry
• Radio board, which is used for 2 way communication
• Experiment - Contains a 10 mW beacon board, which is being used by Rincon Research to prove new technologies

Specifications

These specifications are without respect to the payload.

• Dimensions - 10 cm×10 cm×10 cm
• Mass - max 1 kg (Actual ~900 gram)
• Power Generation - Optimum ~2 W, average on sun side ~1.5 W
• Max power output - 3W when transmitting data
• Min power output - 400 mW when in quiet state

Current status

Rincon 1 was launched with UA's satellite, SACRED

SACRED

SACRED was a Cubesat built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. It was the product of the work of about 50 students, ranging from college freshmen to Ph. D. students, over the course of several years. It was launched, after being postponed several times, on board a Dnepr...

 on a Dnepr rocket on July 26, 2006 at 19:43 UTC. The launch failed shortly after takeoff.

External links

• University of Arizona SSP website (Outdated)
• University of Arizona Cubesat website (official) (Outdated)
• Cubesat Wiki Most up-to-date website