Cornell university students will launch a micro-satellite in 2011, to demonstrate close-proximity manourverability. Together with another recent USAF-sponsored student satellite, it is a warning of near-future US space-war capability

In 2007, CUSat won the U.S. Air Force-sponsored University Nanosatellite Program's Nanosat-4 competition, and the prize was a flight worth millions of dollars. Just recently, their satellite became a confirmed passenger aboard the Falcon 9, which will head to the International Space Station sometime between October 2011 and January 2012.

"We knew we were in the hopper," said Mason Peck, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and CUSat principal investigator. "It was just a matter of waiting long enough."

Falcon 9 is a rocket built by the company SpaceX, and it will carry routine cargo to the space station during that mission. The payload will be integrated and flown under the management of the Department of Defense Space Test Program.

"The rocket is basically like a subway," said Adam Yozwiak '11, co-team leader. "The SpaceX satellite will get dropped off last at the space station orbit -- we are just hitching a ride on the way."

Since their Nanosat-4 win, the mostly undergraduate student team has been working to improve the software aboard CUSat, which is actually a pair of twin satellites that will separate in space to perform experiments involving orientation and location. The system is capable of circumnavigating space relative to each other, using a code called Carrier-Phase Differential GPS (CDGPS) developed by Mark Psiaki, Cornell professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. The algorithm he developed is accurate to within cm

"With that type of accuracy, future missions can use the technology to do, for example, close proximity maneuvers," said Mike Goetz '11, co-team leader.

Most or all satellites today use gyroscopes or accelerometers to determine their orientation in space, Yozwiak said. But CUSat can use the CDGPS algorithm to do it autonomously.

The mission will set out to prove the robustness of this new GPS technology, Peck said. "It's very rare for spacecraft to cooperate with each other," he said. "It's usually a cowboy thing -- one spacecraft does its thing. But if you ever hope to have more than one, they have to navigate relative to each other."

Considering that it is sponsored på the US air force, who also recently sponsored another student nano-satellite launched from a microsatellite, this is however a warning of future american space-war capabilities, when they will be able to make quick micro-satellite launches to intercept satellittes

Source: Cornell University