cube_sat

An UNSW student-led CubeSat mission.

WE ARE THE AUSTRONAUTS

UNSW VIP Project

Team of 12 passionate multidisciplinary engineering students from UNSW

Our Mission

Developing a 6U CubeSat with innovative tether payloads to explore Earth’s ionosphere by 2027

Research Driven

Intending to conduct pioneering research on space weather

Project 2027

To research, design and launch a 6U cubesat to measure space weather.

  • Research & Development

    Laying the groundwork through feasibility studies, tech scouting, and early prototyping to define the mission’s direction.

  • Design & Fabrication

    Engineering teams design critical systems and begin fabrication of mission components with rigorous quality standards.

  • Assembly, Testing & Launch

    Subsystems are integrated, tested for space readiness, and launched after completing mission simulations and flight checks.

  • Data Collection & Operations

    The system enters active operation, transmitting valuable data to ground teams for real-time analysis and mission tracking.

  • De-orbiting and Closeout

    The mission concludes with a safe de-orbit. Data is reviewed, findings documented, and the project formally closed.

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About QB50

Pioneered by UNSW, QB50 is an international mission that launched 50 CubeSats into low Earth orbit in 2016 to study the thermosphere.

Cubesat Development

UNSW-EC0 carried four payloads testing GPS, radiation resilience, microkernel stability, and 3D-printed material performance.

Research Conducted

Our payload, The Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS), gathered data on thermospheric particles to study atmospheric composition.

The Academic Lead

Andrew Dempster Headshot

Academic Spotlight

Dr. Andrew Dempster

PhD (Cambridge) 1995, Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications

Director of the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER)

Andrew's Research

All areas relevant to GPS receiver design and signal processing, including all new GNSS systems and signals, interference, multipath, and hardware optimisation. New location technologies such as Locata and WiFi

Developing GNSS reflectometry for space and airborne platforms

Developing space resources, specifically the Widle Project

Developing cubesats - UNSW-EC0, INSPIRE-2 (launched 2017)

Pursuing the "Garada" Synthetic Aperture Radar Formation Flying project, originally funded under the Australian Space Research Program