On-board measurements successful
21.02.2014Today we’re celebrating UWE-3 “three months in space”. Until today we collected about 5 MB of data, tested the OBDH, the efficiency of the power subsystem and the ADCS including the functionality of detumbling and the reaction wheel. The UWE-3 team appreciates very much the great and ongoing effort of the HAMs from all over the world who contributed in the collection of mission data. Thank you!
Especially we want to thank: DK3WN (Germany), JA6PL (Japan), UB4UAD (Russia), JA1GDE (Japan), PE0SAT (Netherlands), JA0CAW (Japan), IW0HLG (Italy), DE1MGS (Germany), LU4EOU (Argentina).
The UWE-3 Team
-- Previously --
Starting in the last days of January we collected data onboard UWE-3 in high precision mode, mainly from the Earth magnetic field sensors, from the gyroscopes and the power subsystem. Therefore the ADCS sensor suite was constantly turned on causing a continuous total power consumption of around 700–750 mW. The batteries stayed in an expected level between 50–70 % state-of-charge (SOC).
The data stored in the on-board flash file system was successfully downloaded. Since launch (21-11-2013) we initially collected about 2.5 Mb of data until begining of February. We turned off this high precision measurement mode on 04-02-2014 and the power consumption returned to values between 250–350 mW. The batteries were fully recharged again within several orbits.
The analysis of the overall SOC is shown in the following picture generated out of the around 3.500 beacons we received. State A represents the normal mode were UWE-3 is sending beacons every 60 seconds and the ADCS is turned off. State B shows the ADCS in low power mode collecting data with low update rate. State C depicts the total UWE-3 power consumption while the ADCS is in high precision mode. As the battery technology limits the charge rate for SOC between 80-100 % the average SOC drops to 60-70 % during high power mode.
