Clyde Space CubeSat: Scotland's 1st Spacecraft Is Tiny Satellite

An artist's illustration of UKube-1, Scotland's first satellite, in orbit. It launches in 2013. 

CREDIT: Clyde Space

cotland's first satellite will soon find a home in orbit around the Earth — a forerunner of things to come under a collaborative, national nanosatellite program in the UK.

Dubbed UKube-1, the small, novel CubeSat spacecraft has been constructed by Clyde Space in Glasgow and is completing final testing for launch later this year onboard a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The advanced UKube-1 nanosatellite has been designed and manufactured by Clyde Space at their high-tech facility at the West of Scotland Science Park.

The petite but powerful spacecraft is chock full of payloads that include the first GPS device aimed at measuring space weather in Earth's plasmasphere — the inner-most layer of the planet's magnetosphere.

The satellite also comes equipped with a camera that will take pictures of the Earth from space and test the effect of radiation on space hardware using a new generation of imaging sensor and an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using cosmic radiation to improve the security of communications satellites and to flight test lower cost electronic systems.

The UKube-1 satellite also totes a payload made up of five experiments that UK students and the public can interact with — a true "outreach" program into space.


A recent visitor to take a look at UKube-1 was Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland.

"It's one small satellite for Clyde and a giant leap for their extraterrestrial export business and a new hope for space science in Scotland," Salmond said.

UKube-1 is a UK Space Agency mission. The mission has been funded jointly by Clyde Space and a number of funding partners including the UK Space Agency, the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Technology Strategy Board and Scottish Enterprise.

As well as the platform and payload elements of the mission, UKube-1 is being supported by three UK ground stations.

"We started designing our nanosatellite platform in 2008 as a means to stimulate some funding from the UK government as part of a national CubeSat program," Craig Clark, chief executive officer of Clyde Space said. Nanosatellites are the fasting growing space sub-sector, with the UK able to tap into both heritage and expertise that primes the pump in building future small satellites, Clark added.

Clark said that there are a number of new developments from Clyde Space on the mission including deployable solar panels — there are three on UKube-1 — as well as advanced attitude and control technology, a sophisticated miniature sun sensor and specialized software that other CubeSats can use.

Scotland's Clyde Space: CubeSat-1 readied for launch

Clyde-built nanosatellite set for Russian take-off as company reveals plan for US base.

Alex Salmond took a close-up view of Scotland's first satellite as the Glasgow-based team behind the mission announced plans to open a base in the United States.

Clyde Space, which designed and built the UKube-1 nanosatellite, is running final tests at the company's headquarters in the West of Scotland Science Park ahead of its deployment next month to Kazakhstan, where it will be launched in a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket later this year.

Employing more than 20 highly-skilled full-time staff, Clyde Space is a leading producer of small satellite, nanosatellite and 'CubeSat' systems - fully-functional satellites that 'piggy-back' on other launches to minimise costs and boost the commercial availability of space research.

The company develops and delivers products to commercial aerospace, defence companies and academic teams around the world and now plans to open a base next year in the United States - which already accounts for almost a third of its current orders.

Mr Salmond said: "From James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory that paved the way for deep-space telescopes, to Professor Higgs work at the University of Edinburgh into the building blocks of all matter, Scottish science has helped humankind better understand our universe.

By pioneering a cost-effective way of supporting more space research, the Clyde Space team is building on a strong heritage of engineering, ingenuity and innovation. I'm delighted that, through Scottish Enterprise, we've been able to support this exciting company as it has built the business globally, to a point, now, where it is planning a new base in the US.

"It is great to see up close Scotland's first space satellite - representing another successful Scottish export drive, but not as we know it. After years of hard work Craig and his stellar team have shown they have the right stuff to achieve a space mission and they're ready to make it so.

I'm delighted that the mission not only supports several research projects but will engage young people online and can help inspire the next generation of space scientists and engineers. We cannot change the laws of physics but it's important that we continue to study and understand them better. It's one small satellite for Clyde and a giant leap for their extraterrestrial export business and a new hope for space science in Scotland!"

Scotland's Clyde Space: Preparing for Soyuz-2 Launch, Baikonur

Scotland's first satellite will be launched from a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket in March 2013. UKube-1, built by Clyde Space in Glasgow, is now completing final testing at the company's headquarters before making the journey to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch.

Confirming that agreement had been reached for the Russian rocket to carry UKube- 1, Clyde Space CEO Craig Clark, said: "UKube-1 aims to be the first of many nanosatellites produced at Clyde Space, and is a fantastic mission for us to demonstrate our capabilities as a spacecraft mission lead.

"I'm proud of the team here at Clyde Space in achieving such a critical milestone in the mission."

The UKube-1 nanosatellite has been designed and manufactured by Clyde Space at their high-tech facility on the West of Scotland Science Park in Glasgow.

The nanosatellite is one of the most advanced of its kind, the complexity of the spacecraft highlighted by the nature of the 6 independent, advanced payloads being flown by the mission.

NB: The UK Space agency has renamed the Clyde Space CubeSat product to make it sound politically more nationalistic and collaborative.

The satellite is one of the most advanced of its kind and the mission is the pilot for a collaborative, national CubeSat programme bringing together UK industry and academia to fly educational packages, test new technologies and carry out new space research quickly and efficiently.

Payloads in UKube-1 include the first GPS device aimed at measuring plasmaspheric space weather, a camera that will take images of the Earth and test the effect of radiation on space hardware using a new generation of imaging sensor and an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using cosmic radiation to improve the security of communications satellites and to flight test lower cost electronic systems.

In line with the Scottish philosophy of education, enlightenment and their historical technical heritage, the company has engaged with students, colleges and universities to involve them in the design of future payloads.

Therefore, the Clyde Space CubeSat (UKube-1) will also carry a payload made up of five experiments that UK students and the public can interact with and an outreach programme that also allows school children to interact with the spacecraft.

AEOLDOS: Glasgow Uni and Clyde Space set to put brakes on SpaceDebris

Engineers at the University of Glasgow and Clyde Space Ltd have developed a practical solution to the increasing problem of space debris. Millions of pieces of 'space junk' are orbiting the Earth as a side-effect of human exploration and exploitation of space.

The pieces range from tiny fragments of bigger objects such as rocket boosters to full-sized pieces of now-defunct equipment. Working satellites and spacecraft can be damaged by collisions with debris, which can travel at velocities of several kilometres per second.

The problem is compounded by every collision which creates more debris in turn; in 2009, the collision of a non-operational Russian communications satellite and a working US satellite created more than 700 pieces of debris.

Dr Patrick Harkness of the University's School of Engineering has led the development of the Aerodynamic End Of Life Deorbit System, or AEOLDOS, to help ensure that objects sent into space in future can be removed from orbit at the end of their operational cycle.

AEOLDOS is lightweight, foldable 'aerobrake' which can be added to small satellites known as CubeSats before they are launched into low Earth orbit.

Once the satellite has reached the end of its operational life the lightweight aerobrake, made from a thin membrane supported by tape measure-like struts, springs open to generate aerodynamic drag against the extremely thin upper atmosphere that still exists in near-Earth space.

As the satellite falls out of orbit the aerodynamic effects increase, causing the satellite to harmlessly burn up during its descent.

This ensures that it does not become another piece of potentially harmful space debris.Glasgow-based SME Clyde Space, which builds small and micro spacecraft systems, is working with Dr Harkness to apply AEOLDOS technology to the CubeSats it provides to customers all over the world.

CubeSats are used for space-related research projects and generally sent into space as secondary payloads on larger launch vehicles.

Dr Harkness said: "It's only been 55 years since Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, was sent into orbit, but since then we've managed to make made quite a mess of the space around our planet.

The rate at which we're putting objects into orbit is accelerating each year, which is why it's vital for us to take more control over how they can be removed from orbit once they have served their purpose.

CubeSats are currently aimed at lower orbits than is necessarily desired to ensure they will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere within 25 years in order to meet official recommendations set by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

This can curtail the full scientific potential of CubeSats, but AEOLDOS gives users much more control over the end of their project's life and could enable missions to take place at much higher altitudes because they know we can always produce the drag they will need to dispose of the spacecraft in time."

The tape measure deployment system has been developed by Malcolm McRobb, also from the School of Engineering.

Coiling the tapes stores energy within them, which can be released years later to deploy the membrane. Mr. McRobb believes that AEOLDOS has applications beyond space debris control.

He explained: "The technology could be used to enable solar sailing missions, where spacecraft can manoeuvre using the pressure of sunlight.

Or it could form the basis of deployable antennae, increasing the sensitivity of small, low-powered spacecraft.We expect that another year to 18 months of development will see the AEOLDOS system available for commercial use through our licensing agreement with Clyde Space.

After we have demonstrated that the technology can work in space, we are looking forward to designing these new and exciting applications for the device."

Craig Clark of Clyde Space said: 'Clyde Space is widely recognized for developing key technologies and products that enable more advanced CubeSat missions, and AEOLDOS is another key innovation that will enable more spacecraft missions in the future.

The team at the University of Glasgow have been able to solve critical problems relating to the drag sail deployment with effective, innovative solutions and we're sure that this development will be used on many small satellite missions in the future as we aim to reduce the problem of space junk for the next generation of space users.'

The development of the AEOLDOS project is part of the University of Glasgow's Space Glasgow Research Cluster, which draws together researchers from across the College of Science and Engineering to work on pioneering space-related projects.

Plastic Space Telescopes: Photon sieves make super-cheap viewers

FLEXIBLE plastic telescopes launched from microsatellites could serve as quick replacements for space observatories taken out by solar flares, or spy satellites downed by military action.

The telescopes, which are being developed by Geoff Andersen and colleagues at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, rely on an imaging device called a photon sieve. 

Traditional telescopes use lenses or mirrors to focus light by refraction or reflection, but the photon sieve uses diffraction instead. 

The sieve is an ultra-thin plastic disc perforated by millions of microscopic holes, each of which bends light at different angles to create a focal point.

Less light reaches the focal point compared with traditional lenses or mirrors, making it hard to image dim objects, and the device can only take black-and-white pictures. 

But the sieve is cheap, lightweight and easy to manufacture at large sizes. It can also be tightly folded and unfurled without being damaged. "You can't do that with mirrors or lenses," says Andersen, who hopes to launch a device into orbit in 2014.

The planned 20-centimetre-diameter telescope will be scrunched up inside a CubeSat, a microsatellite just 10 × 10 × 30 cm, designed for cheaply carrying small payloads. 

Andersen's team aims to take pictures of the sun to prove that the concept works. A similar device could also help the search for Earth-like planets, Andersen says, though such images would require a big telescope, and would likely be just a few pixels wide.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is also interested in using the concept to build a 20-metre version of the photon sieve for imaging objects on the ground at sub-metre resolutions.

Andersen says the design is partly a response to China's demonstration in 2007 of an anti-satellite missile. "That showed a billion-dollar national asset could be shot down at any time," he says.

He will present the research at the Defense, Security and Sensing conference in Baltimore, Maryland, next month.

Marek Kukula of the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London says that while the devices won't replace the likes of the Hubble or James Webb space telescopes, a "cheap and cheerful" alternative to smaller telescopes would have many applications.

First Scottish-built satellite UKube-1 to launch in 2013

One of the first satellite to be built in Scotland, by Clyde Space, is due to be launched next year.

UKube-1 is being built at the West of Scotland Science Park in Maryhill, Glasgow.

The United Kingdom Universal Bus Experiment, to give it its proper name, is a pilot programme from the UK Space Agency to test new technologies in space.

The underlying CubeSat concept came originally from America: to create a satellite 10cm by 10cm by 10cm.

That gives you a volume of just one litre, but that can contain a surprising amount of science in low Earth orbit.

It's a package which costs, by space exploration standards, relatively little to build and launch.

Several Scottish firms supply intellectual property to the space industry. One of them, Clyde Space, has a big presence in the CubeSat sector.

More than 600 CubeSats have been launched so far and the Glasgow firm has made components for 40% of them.

They have customers worldwide and - if your credit card can take the strain - you can order the innards of your very own satellite from their online CubeSat shop.

'Different possibilities'

They make components for other types of satellites too but their chief executive, Craig Clark, says he's seen the CubeSat concept expand far beyond its initial concept.

People often ask me what my job is and I tell them that I'm building satellites in Maryhill. Sometimes they laugh at me” Steven Kirk Clyde Space.

"A typical CubeSat mission was a student-built satellite that would maybe go beep or try something out that didn't cost a lot of money," he says.

"But now it's serving a need, maybe for more communications or images from space. If you can think of an application, there's a way of fitting it in a CubeSat. It really opens the mind to lots of different possibilities."

Those possibilities include CubeSats which aren't cubes: the basic modules can be stacked to produce double or triple decker designs.

UKube-1 is a three-cube platform. Three litres of orbital science overseen by the UK Space Agency.

It will be the first complete satellite to be assembled by Clyde Space.

Project manager Gillian Smith's job is to co-ordinate the company's own contributions to the satellite: power systems, solar panels and other hardware."But we're also managing the payload teams," she says.

"We've got four different payloads from different universities and organisations which will be on UKube-1."

Scotland's Glasgow firm Clyde Space awarded small share of UK technology funding

Glasgow-based Clyde Space has been awarded funding for two joint space technology development projects.

The firm has secured nearly £70,000 under the UK Space Agency's National Space Technology Programme (NSTP).

The funding will help Clyde further work on miniaturised electric propulsion systems for very small spacecraft.

The other project involves developing attitude planning and control algorithms for low cost spacecraft.

Clyde has been working on tiny electric propulsion systems for very small spacecraft called "CubeSats" and nanosatellites with Southampton University's Mars Space Ltd.

Funding of £24,000 has been awarded for their joint work on a micro pulsed plasma thruster for CubeSats.

Clyde said the project would take the technology forward to a flight-ready prototype.

The UK Space Agency awarded a further £44,000 for a joint project with the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde.

That project involves optimising algorithms for control of CubeSat attitude, furthering work already completed at Clyde.

Craig Clark, from Clyde Space, said: "We are up against organisations from all over the world, high technology companies that are doing similar things to us, so this funding will really help towards us maintaining a competitive edge."

ESA Cubesats delivered for first Vega flight

The Spanish CubeSat - Credits: ESA / A. Reyes

The first CubeSats to be sponsored by ESA’s Education Office have been delivered to the agency’s Space Technology and Research Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.

Integration of these 1 kilogram pico-satellites into their deployment systems, named P-PODs (Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer) and the associated testing was completed by mid-November.

They will now undergo a Final Acceptance Review and, if accepted for the flight, will be sent to the European Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, to be prepared for launch on the Vega Qualification Flight.

The ESA CubeSat programme began on 28 May 2007, when Antonio Fabrizi, the Director of Launchers, and René Oosterlinck, the Director of Legal Affairs and External Relations, signed an agreement to include an educational payload on the maiden flight of the Vega launch vehicle.

The announcement of opportunity issued by ESA's Education Office in February 2008 offered the possibility of launching up to nine university CubeSats free-of-charge on Europe's newest launcher. 

Cube Satellites: View Space Station as Launch Pad

CubeSats are small and compact sensor-laden satellites that can help monitor phenomena of interest, such as Earth's upper atmosphere.

CREDIT: University of Kentucky

The International Space Station would be an ideal launch platform for dispatching tiny spacecraft to perform a variety of Earth-oriented scientific research tasks, some experts speculate.

The idea of using the $100 billion ISS as a platform to pop out sensor-laden probes has captured the attention of small-satellite makers, who are contemplating deploying palm-sized satellites called CubeSats from the orbiting laboratory to study phenomena of interest.

Clyde Space - Cubesat

Scottish scientists are also at the Technology Strategy Board Collaboration Nation event, concluding the Space Feasibility study activities, Clyde Space presented three of our innovative technology concepts for use on CubeSats. 

The concepts were a high resolution imager for a 3U CubeSat for global digital mapping, a Bush Fire early warning system using a constellation of 3U CubeSats with infrared imaging capability and a Dragsail for automatically deorbiting CubeSats at the end of mission life. 

A summary of the studies can be found in this PDF (extract from the Technology Strategy Board report): Clyde Space TSB Study Summaries.

Fuelling The Clyde Space Rocket

Glasgow based Clyde Space, a leading provider of miniature spacecraft, has secured a funding package worth £1m, including significant equity investment, to support the company's growth in a burgeoning global space market.

The investment package was led by private equity firm Nevis Capital and includes funding from Coralinn LLP.

Additional funding from Scottish Enterprise, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Technology Strategy Board and Regional Selective Assistance are included to support innovation and growth across all company activities.

Clyde Space is widely regarded as one of the most innovative young companies in the UK and in just 5 years has become the largest indigenous space company in Scotland.

The company has a global customer portfolio including the European Space Agency, several USA based customers in addition to other global customers in countries such as Turkey, South Africa, India, China, South America, Canada.

The funding will support Clyde Space to expand its product range and capability offering and increase its global market share.

The success of Clyde Space comes from the company's ability to produce high quality, high performance systems for very small spacecraft called 'CubeSats'. One of the first commercial companies in the World to recognise the potential of CubeSats for space applications, Clyde Space has about 30-40% market share of the global CubeSat power market.

Clyde Space are expanding their CubeSat capabilities with UKube1, a 5kg satellite being developed and built in Glasgow by Clyde Space for the UK Space Agency and due for launch late 2011.

About 50% of turnover at Clyde Space is from the sales of power components for larger spacecraft, including power controllers, batteries and solar panels. Clyde Space solar panels were launched last year on the South African mission, 'SumbandilaSat'.

Clyde Space founder and CEO, Craig Clark, sits on the UK Space Leadership Council. He said; 'I am absolutely delighted with the funding package. For me, this funding round is not just about financial support, but about the people. I met the guys from Nevis about 5 years ago and, having got to know them in the interim period, I knew that Nevis would be an excellent fit to invest in Clyde Space.

In addition, Hugh Stewart has an outstanding record in growing globally successful companies. I couldn't be more happy to have them on board.' On the government support Craig said; 'We are very fortunate in Scotland and the UK to have superb support from government for innovative technology companies in growth markets - both Scottish Enterprise, STFC and the Technology Strategy Board continue to be a major factor in the success of Clyde Space.'

Scottish Clyde Space builds innovative CubeSat

Scottish Clyde space firm builds CubeSat

A Glasgow-based company is to build a miniature satellite that will allow the UK to test new space technologies.

Clyde Space will develop a spacecraft platform for the cube-shaped satellite as part of a one-year pilot programme announced by the UK Space Agency.

It will be the first time a CubeSat, as it is known, has been assembled in the United Kingdom.

Space officials said the tiny satellite would carry out new space research relatively cheaply and quickly.

The satellite will measure just 10cm x 10cm x 34cm, according to Clyde Space.

Companies and academics are being asked to come up with innovative ideas for CubeSat payloads as part of the pilot programme.

The winning payloads will be launched on the satellite, possibly from India, in the middle of next year.

Craig Clark, chief executive of Clyde Space, said the launch of the CubeSat programme was a "tremendous opportunity" for his company.

He said: "As with all space-related business, the best way to market space products is through their successful demonstration in orbit.

"By providing the CubeSat platform, we will benefit immensely from the opportunity and so it is vital to the growth of Clyde Space as a leading CubeSat company.

"I feel also that this programme is vital for the UK's commercial exploitation and export of CubeSat technology in this rapidly growing market."

Dr David Williams, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, commented: "These satellites may be smaller than your home computer, but with the payloads that our skilled scientists will add to them, they are sure to make up in innovation what they lack in size."