LEDSAT

LEDSAT LEDSAT (LED-based small SATellite) is an Italian University 1U CubeSat selected for the ESA Fly You

LEDSAT (LED-based small SATellite) is a 1U CubeSat in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) equipped with LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) and retroreflectors for optical tracking with ground-based telescopes and laser ranging observatories. The idea has been conceived and designed by an Italian student team from Sapienza - University of Rome in cooperation with professors and students from the Astronomy Department o

f University of Michigan. This educational CubeSat will be developed by the S5Lab (Sapienza Space Systems and Space Surveillance Laboratory) research team at Sapienza - University of Rome. The mission aims to be a milestone for calibrating orbit determinations systems based on optical measurements in LEO regimes. It will permit to evaluate performances and reliability of actual systems, sensors and algorithms for orbit determination. Moreover, it will also test the LED-based technology for attitude determination through light curve measurements and low rate light flashing communication using a pulse code. Currently ground-based optical tracking of satellites in LEO faces multiple challenges. The satellite must be in sunlight, while the ground-based telescope must be in darkness. By having LEDs as an on-board payload to actively illuminate the satellite, the number of passes in which LEDSAT will be visible from telescope increases resulting in a higher accuracy and precision in tracking. The ground-based measurements will be performed during the whole mission lifetime by a network of six different observatories located at medium and equatorial latitudes. The LEDSAT mission willing to explore new and promising techniques conceived for gathering important information about the status of the in-orbit CubeSat.

17/08/2021

Thank you friends for staying with us the whole night - count us in for your launch event, we’ll be there for you! 🛰🚀

LEDSAT is all good and alive in space! We received the telemetry around 10.40 during the first pass over Rome 👋🛰👋✅
17/08/2021

LEDSAT is all good and alive in space! We received the telemetry around 10.40 during the first pass over Rome 👋🛰👋✅

17/08/2021

LIFT OFF FOR LEDSAT!!!

Can you believe it’s LAUNCH DAY???Lift off is scheduled for 3.47am CEST / 1.47am UTC - follow us for more updates on the...
16/08/2021

Can you believe it’s LAUNCH DAY???

Lift off is scheduled for 3.47am CEST / 1.47am UTC - follow us for more updates on the launch of Vega VV19 with LEDSAT on-board!

Godspeed LEDSAT 🥲❤️🚀

15/08/2021

The team has an important reminder for you while celebrating the Italian Ferragosto…

LEDSAT will be launched TOMORROW (or better, the night between August 16 and 17) at 3.47 Italian time / 1.47 UTC!

Join us in wishing the best of luck for our launch and to Vega VV19. Follow us on S5Lab for these and further updates on the activities 🚀

In the last two days, we integrated LEDSAT in the flight deployer, which is now being transported to the launch site! Th...
17/07/2021

In the last two days, we integrated LEDSAT in the flight deployer, which is now being transported to the launch site! This concludes the cycle of on-ground activities, from design to qualification of the satellite. We literally can’t wait to see our years of work turning into in-orbit research! Stay tuned for more news on the launch 🚀

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Abbiamo integrato LEDSAT nel deployer di volo, che ora verrà trasportato al sito di lancio! L’integrazione conclude il ciclo di attività a terra su LEDSAT, dal progetto alla qualifica del satellite per il volo. Non vediamo l’ora di vedere questi anni di lavoro trasformarsi nelle operazioni in orbita del satellite! Rimanete aggiornati per tutte le novità su LEDSAT su questa pagina! 🚀

Surprise! We managed to conclude the environmental testing campaign for LEDSAT at the end of 2020 - the satellite is now...
04/02/2021

Surprise!
We managed to conclude the environmental testing campaign for LEDSAT at the end of 2020 - the satellite is now (almost) ready to fly and the flight acceptance review is underway!!!

For COVID-related issues, the environmental testing campaign has taken place at our facilities at Sapienza, instead of travelling to Belgium at the ESA - European Space Agency's facilities - nonetheless, the technical support by ESA was huge and allowed us to follow all the needed procedures for testing.

Thanks ESA Education for sharing this nice article and for your huge support during our tests!

And now... Cross your fingers for our acceptance to fly!

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Sorpresa!
Siamo riusciti a terminare la environmental testing campaign di LEDSAT alla fine del 2020 - il satellite è ora (quasi!) pronto al volo e la review finale per l'accettazione del satellite è in corso!!!

Per questioni relative alla possibilità di viaggiare con la pandemia, la campagna di test ha avuto luogo alle nostre facilities alla Sapienza, invece che al centro di testing dell'ESA in Belgio. Nonostante ciò, ESA ci ha supportato tantissimo per riuscire a svolgere i test con tutte le procedure necessarie alla qualifica.

Grazie a ESA Education per aver scritto questo bell'articolo e per il vostro supporto durante i test!

E ora... Incrociate le dita per farci ottenere presto un "biglietto" per il lancio!!!

The LEDSAT team, participating in the second round of ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! programme, has completed their crucial structural qualification and thermal-vacuum tests, demonstrating their CubeSat’s readiness to continue with its mission to space!  

LEDSAT has landed on New Scientist! A short article about the mission and on the future usage of LEDs for satellites tra...
13/11/2020

LEDSAT has landed on New Scientist! A short article about the mission and on the future usage of LEDs for satellites tracking and space traffic management has been published today on this prestigious science magazine!

It’s difficult to keep track of satellites in Earth’s orbit and avoid collisions – making them flash dimly should help, without interfering with astronomical work

In these difficult and challenging times, the work on our satellite project is not stopping at all. While social distanc...
04/06/2020

In these difficult and challenging times, the work on our satellite project is not stopping at all. While social distancing and lockdown have imposed us to keep a higher distance between each other and from our lab and from the satellite hardware, the LEDSAT team has been busy in the past months in setting up all the procedures needed for the upcoming functional tests to be held at the laboratory and of the following environmental testing campaign that will qualify the satellite for launch and operations in space. This ESA Education article deals with how every team participating in Fly Your Satellite! (including us) is coupling the progress on the satellites project with the restrictions that have been enforced worldwide. Easter egg: you'll see a funny picture of some of us enjoying a (very Italian) coffee in teleworking!

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In questi mesi difficili, il lavoro sul nostro satellite non si è affatto fermato. Mentre le nuove regole sul distanziamento sociale e la quarantena ci hanno imposto di mantenere distanze più grandi tra di noi e dal laboratorio e dal satellite, il nostro team si è concentrato nel mettere a punto, negli scorsi mesi, le strategie e le procedure necessarie allo svolgimento dei test funzionali, che si svolgeranno in laboratorio, e a quelli ambientali, che qualificheranno LEDSAT al lancio e alle operazioni nello spazio. Questo articolo di ESA Education vi racconta di come tutti i team di Fly Your Satellite!, noi inclusi, stanno organizzando il lavoro in base alle restrizioni imposte dall'emergenza sanitaria globale. Un piccolo easter egg: troverete una nostra foto mentre ci godiamo un caffè (molto italiano) in telelavoro!




The world as we know it has changed, with the COVID-19 pandemic halting many activities around the globe. Showing the innovative can-do attitude that marks successful space engineers, the teams participating in ESA’s Education’s Fly Your Satellite! programme have devised methods to adapt to tele...

Vibration test ended succesfully!🛰It is now time to perform thermal vacuum test!💪💫After the test preparation the two con...
22/11/2019

Vibration test ended succesfully!🛰
It is now time to perform thermal vacuum test!💪💫

After the test preparation the two control boards and the LED board have been closed inside the TVAC chamber.
At the end of this test it will be sure that components are correctly soldered and LEDSAT will be a little closer to its final phase!👩‍🚀🌏

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Il test di vibrazione si è concluso con successo!
Ora è arrivato il momento del test del termovuoto!
Dopo la preparazione del test le schede di controllo e la scheda LED sono state chiuse all'interno della camera termovuoto.
Alla fine di questo test sarà certo che i componenti siano ben saldati sulle schede e LEDSAT sarà un po più vicino alla sua fase finale!


S5Lab ESA - European Space Agency ESA Education Sapienza Università di Roma Facoltà di Ingegneria civile e industriale - Sapienza Università di Roma

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