Innovative USU-built satellites orbiting Earth
After two years of engineering Yahtzee and Farkle — two nanosatellites created predominantly by USU students — currently circumnavigate the world every 90 minutes.
The Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment (DICE) was launched into space Oct. 28. Named Yahtzee and Farkle after the board games, these satellites are the first of their kind, Charles Swenson, a faculty participant of DICE, said.
He said cube satellites have revolutionized the space industry.
“We literally have people all around the world watching to see what happens with the DICE spacecraft,” Swenson said. “Other people have made these cube-sats, but they haven’t been as capable as what we’ve been doing. We’ve been packing more into them.”
Swenson said the team recruited the services of L3 Communications to help develop the miniature radios that are essential for communication to and from the satellites. The company hopes to sell the system to other people who will follow DICE and want to build their own small satellites.
“Everyone has been looking at this and watching, because there really is a revolution coming,” Swenson said. “If we can build such capable things the size of cellphones, why aren’t we flying them in space too? Why do we have to build something the size of a desk or a bus to do things?”
The goal of the team is to measure ionosphere density and magnetic fields in geomagnetic storms in an effort to understand how these storms affect our world, Swenson said.
After piggybacking its way into space on a NASA weather satellite, the nanosatellites disappeared, Swenson said. For three days, members of the DICE team had to wait and watch, hoping Yahtzee and Farkle survived the trip.
“We knew where they were supposed to be, and we were pointed where we thought they were supposed to be, but that’s not where they actually were,” Swenson said. “It’s a real emotional rollercoaster to do this kind of stuff. Because, you know, you could put this thing up and you’d never hear from it, and you’d never know why — you wouldn’t have a clue.”
Todd Moon, head of the electrical and computer engineering department, said as a supporter of the project, the bumps along the way were difficult for him to deal with.
“There were several times when I just had to keep my fingers crossed and hope it would go through,” Moon said.
As part of the process, both satellites underwent different testing procedures. Moon said after one particularly rigorous test session, a mechanical element of a satellite faltered and then bent — rendering the entire machine unusable.
“In 24 hours they completely re-machined the skeleton structure and then put the whole thing back together. It was amazing,” he said. “And these are the students that are doing this.”
Overall, Swenson said this project was a triumph.
“It is a rousing success,” Swenson said. “We don’t know yet if he have had a science success, but as far as the other elements of what we’re trying to do we have been able to do that. So that’s a success.”
Swenson said the project has already made advances in research such as demonstrating high-speed communications between the satellite and Earth, as well as developing a spacecraft that is a fraction of the size but still the same cost of other satellites.
Moon said he is excited about the opportunities this project will bring to the students involved.
“For the students that are involved in this, it has been a remarkable learning experience for them,” Moon said. “Any company that knows anything at all about this will just be falling all over themselves to hire these students. They’ve been through the trenches, and they are good.”
DICE is expected to continue feeding information to the research team for the next six months to three years.
– brianna.b@aggiemail.usu.edu