CUSat (Nanosat-4)
CUSat is a multi-year effort to design, build and launch an autonomous in-orbit inspection satellite system. The CUSat space vehicle consists of two functionally identical satellites that will launch together and separate in orbit. Using centimeter accuracy carrier-phase differential GPS, the two satellites will perform autonomous relative navigation. One satellite will capture imagery of the other satellite and send these images to a ground station on Earth for the reconstruction of a 3-D model of the partner satellite. The images will also act to verify the relative GPS implementation. Doing so will demonstrate how one spacecraft can diagnose the structural health and configuration of another, a capability that will help enable commercial, government and manned space missions for the coming decades. CUSat is the winner of the University Nanosat-4 Program, which aims to educate the future aerospace workforce and develop new space technologies. The CUSat team has designed and built two spacecraft that will be launched between October 2011 and January 2012.
Faculty Advisor
Mason Peck, MAE
Team Leaders
Joseph Mongeluzzi
Troy Hoffa
Garrick Lau
Angre Heil
Paul Jackson
Sarah Brotman
Team Contact Information
CUSat Nanosatellite
212 Upson Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Phone: 607-255-4023
