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{{Nowrap|Welcome to the SSI Satellites Team! Whether you're an incoming frosh, tired old senior, graduate student, alumni, or even not a part of the Stanford community, we're glad you're here. Our current mission is SAMWISE, a CubeSat with a number of technological advancements compared to our prior missions. Our Satellite Team Leads are }} {{Leadership|Satellites = true}}

{{Nowrap|Welcome to the SSI Satellites Team! Whether you're an incoming frosh, tired old senior, graduate student, alumni, or even not a part of the Stanford community, we're glad you're here. Our current mission is SAMWISE, a CubeSat with a number of technological advancements compared to our prior missions. Our Satellite Team Leads are }} {{Leadership|Satellites = true}}

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== Getting Started with Satellites ==

== Getting Started with Satellites 🛰️ ==

===Stanford Affiliated 🌲===  

===Stanford Affiliated 🌲===  

And of course if any questions or confusions come up, don't hesitate to reach out to any of the Satellite Team Leads. Also feel free to reach out to Subteam Leads if you have subteam-specific questions!   

And of course if any questions or confusions come up, don't hesitate to reach out to any of the Satellite Team Leads. Also feel free to reach out to Subteam Leads if you have subteam-specific questions!   

===Outside Stanford ❄️===

===Outside Stanford===

If you're not affiliated with Stanford but are interested in the team and our projects, we'd still love to have you! To get in touch, please email one or all of the team leads [mailto:raigosa@stanford.edu Ashley Raigosa], [mailto:spenwall@stanford.edu Spencer Wallace], and [mailto:theo24@stanford.edu Theo Makler].  

If you're not affiliated with Stanford but are interested in the team and our projects, we'd still love to have you! To get in touch, please email one or all of the team leads [mailto:raigosa@stanford.edu Ashley Raigosa], [mailto:spenwall@stanford.edu Spencer Wallace], and [mailto:theo24@stanford.edu Theo Makler].  

=== Onboarding Events Calendar ===

=== Onboarding Events Calendar 📅 ===

Check out the [https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/embed?src=5or10qu0uhtfqcdqb3knrpn3r8@group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles '''SSI Updated General Event Calendar'''] to stay up-to-date on all of our onboarding events! This is still a work-in-progress so stay tuned for more information :)  

Check out the [https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/embed?src=5or10qu0uhtfqcdqb3knrpn3r8@group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles '''SSI Updated General Event Calendar'''] to stay up-to-date on all of our onboarding events! This is still a work-in-progress so stay tuned for more information :)  

== Our Website: [https://saplingsat.org saplingsat.org] ==

== Our Website: [https://saplingsat.org saplingsat.org] ==

One of our main goals of the satellites team is to increase accessibility to space, and while we can have made a ton of progress on this from an engineering standpoint, it's pretty limited unless we get the word out. So we made a website! At [https://saplingsat.org '''saplingsat.org'''], you'll be able to find everything from our project overview to how to assemble our main flight computer. If you wanna take a deep dive into our software repositories or just brush up on terminology, the website is the place for you :)

One of our main goals of the satellites team is to increase accessibility to space, and while we can have made a ton of progress on this from an engineering standpoint, it's pretty limited unless we get the word out. So we made a website! At [https://saplingsat.org '''saplingsat.org'''], you'll be able to find everything from our project overviews to how to assemble our main flight computer. If you wanna take a deep dive into our software repositories or just brush up on terminology, the website is the place for you :)

== Current Mission: SAMWISE ==

== Current Mission: SAMWISE ==

== Subteams ==

== Subteams ==

Building a satellite is definitely not a simple task! There's a lot that goes into each one, so to help streamline things we divide up into '''subteams'''. Each of these subteams has a specific task associated with the satellite, and together they work together to make the mission a success! Below you'll find descriptions of each subteam, ways to contact our current subteam leads, and links to their respective Slack channels.

Building a satellite is definitely not a simple job! There's a lot that goes into each one, so to help streamline things we divide up the work into '''subteams'''. Each of these subteams has a specific task associated with the satellite, and together they work together to make the mission a success. Below you'll find descriptions of each subteam, ways to contact our current subteam leads, and links to their respective Slack channels. While each subteam has their own projects, there's a huge amount of collaboration between groups and lots of people work on multiple!

=== Attitude Determination and Control (ADCS) ===

=== Attitude Determination and Control (ADCS) ===

Slack channel: [https://ssi-teams.slack.com/messages/satellites-avionics satellites-avionics]            Subteam Lead: Hunter Liu

Slack channel: [https://ssi-teams.slack.com/messages/satellites-avionics satellites-avionics]            Subteam Lead: Hunter Liu

The avionics subteam focuses on all of the hardware on the satellite that makes the system work. This "bus" hardware includes power, compute, and sensing systems. We currently use a modified PyCubed microcontroller that runs our CircuitPython flight code, a solar power system based off of the LT3652 chip and some NCR18650B batteries, and a sensing system that includes sun sensors, an IMU, and thermistors.

The avionics subteam focuses on all of the hardware on the satellite that makes the electronics system work! This "bus" hardware includes power, compute, and sensing systems. Our current flight computer, the central computer of the satellite that handles all information coming in and out and executes commands, is a modified PyCubed microcontroller that runs our CircuitPython flight code. The satellite is powered by a solar power system based off of the LT3652 chip and some NCR18650B batteries, and it also includes a sensing system with sun sensors, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), and thermistors to measure temperature.

All of the hardware is designed in KiCad and we make updates with every satellite we fly. On SAMWISE we're going to increase the size of our power system to generate 6x the power, add more sensors for more precise attitude determinate and health monitoring, and add the hardware needed to drive the payloads effectively. We're also planning on adding support for a new reaction wheel system for ADCS.  

All of the hardware is designed in KiCad and we make updates with every satellite we fly. On SAMWISE we're going to increase the size of our power system to generate six times the power, add more sensors for more precise attitude determination and health monitoring, and add hardware to work with the payloads effectively. We're also planning on adding support for a new reaction wheel system for the ADCS subteam. This subteam has a bunch of super exciting projects happening, so be sure to check out the Slack channel above and reach out!

=== Payload ===

=== Payload ===

Also referred to as Sapling-2, this was the second of the ''Sapling'' series of 1U CubeSats. This mission represented a major step forward in our satellite design and became the first SSI satellite to successfully make contact with the ground once deployed.  

Also referred to as Sapling-2, this was the second of the ''Sapling'' series of 1U CubeSats. This mission represented a major step forward in our satellite design and became the first SSI satellite to successfully make contact with the ground once deployed.  

Sapling-2 launched on SpaceX's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_launches_in_January%E2%80%93June_2023#SpXTransporter7 Transporter 7] at 11:48pm on April 14th, 2023 from Vandenburg Space Force Base in Southern California. Shortly after deployment contact was made with SSI's Durand ground station.

Sapling-2 launched on SpaceX's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_launches_in_January%E2%80%93June_2023#SpXTransporter7 Transporter 7] at 11:48pm PST on April 14th, 2023 from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandenberg_Space_Force_Base Vandenburg Space Force Base] in Southern California. Shortly after deployment contact was made with SSI's Durand ground station.

 

The avionics on Sapling-2 include a PyCubed V(?) main flight computer and is powered with NCR18650B batteries and solar panels on each side panel. As with Sapling-1 the payload was a Google Coral Dev Board Mini computer and a Google Coral Camera, with similar imaging and image processing goals.

In addition to incremental but critical improvements to the internal electronics of the satellite, Sapling-2 featured a number of major changes from the design of Sapling-1. The first iteration of the (name for the sheet metal structure) debuted on this satellite. This structure, made of off-the-shelf aluminum cut with a CNC and bent into precise shape before being anodized, lowered material costs and allowed for rapid prototyping. An evolution of this structure is being created for the SAMWISE satellite and will underpin all missions in the near future.

In addition to incremental but critical improvements to the internal electronics of the satellite, Sapling-2 featured a number of major changes from the design of Sapling-1. The first iteration of the (name for the sheet metal structure) debuted on this satellite. This structure, made of off-the-shelf aluminum cut with a CNC and bent into precise shape before being anodized, lowered material costs and allowed for rapid prototyping. An evolution of this structure is being created for the SAMWISE satellite and will underpin all missions in the near future.

Also referred to as Sapling-1, this was the first of the ''Sapling'' 1U CubeSats. While [https://ssi-wiki.stanford.edu/Category:Satellites#POINTR:_.5Byear.5D.E2.80.932018 POINTR] was the Satellite team's first payload to reach space, Sapling-1 would be the first entire satellite designed and built in-house by SSI.  

Also referred to as Sapling-1, this was the first of the ''Sapling'' 1U CubeSats. While [https://ssi-wiki.stanford.edu/Category:Satellites#POINTR:_.5Byear.5D.E2.80.932018 POINTR] was the Satellite team's first payload to reach space, Sapling-1 would be the first entire satellite designed and built in-house by SSI.  

Paragraph on the avionics (PyCubed version, battery board)

Sapling-1 was launched on SpaceX's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_launches_in_January%E2%80%93June_2023#SpXTransporter6 Transporter 6] at 10:56am EST on January 3rd, 2023 from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Canaveral_Space_Launch_Complex_40 Space Launch Complex 40] in Cape Canaveral, Florida. For this mission, the third-party company we partnered with successfully deployed from the Falcon 9 rocket and made contact with the ground but was unable to deploy its customer payloads which included Sapling-1. Even though Sapling-1 never left the deployer, the process of designing, building, testing, and delivering the satellite taught the team a number of crucial lessons which carried over directly to ''Sapling Giganteum''.

 

The avionics on Sapling-1 include a PyCubed V(?) main flight computer, NCR18650B batteries, and solar power based off of the LT3652 chip.

Paragraph on the software?

Paragraph on the software

The payload of Sapling-1 consisted of a [https://coral.ai/products/dev-board-mini Google Coral Dev Board Mini] computer and a [https://coral.ai/products/camera/ Google Coral Camera]. This payload was selected to demonstrate on-orbit image processing and selection using an AI filter. The Coral would use this processing to select a single "best" image out of a series of images taken, reducing the amount of data needed to be transmitted down to Earth. The camera was mounted on the Z- face of the satellite opposite the antennas (towards the table in the photo on the right).

The payload of Sapling-1 consisted of a [https://coral.ai/products/dev-board-mini Google Coral Dev Board Mini] computer and a [https://coral.ai/products/camera/ Google Coral Camera]. This payload was selected to demonstrate on-orbit image processing and selection using an AI filter. The Coral would use this processing to select a single "best" image out of a series of images taken, reducing the amount of data needed to be transmitted down to Earth. The camera was mounted on the Z- face of the satellite opposite the antennas (towards the table in the photo on the right).