Visiting the Sapphire Satellite Mission Control Room

July 2019

I had the opportunity to attend an information session regarding upcoming deep space exploration programs, including Canada’s contributions to the NASA-led Lunar Gateway. The presentation was held at MDA in Richmond, and featured information on Canadarm3, PHASR, and other robotic technologies. The photo above shows the SFU Satellite Design Team in the Sapphire satellite mission control room at MDA headquarters.

The Sapphire satellite plays an important role in detecting debris and other objects in orbit. This control room is used for TT&C as well as analysis of the data. It is linked to MDA's nearby ground station. The ground station uses a motorized parabolic antenna to communicate with the satellite. The satellite has S-band and L-band patch antennas, as well as a monopole S-band antenna.

Developing a CubeSat RF Communications System

May 2019

I recently had the opportunity to speak to members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Vancouver section. I presented my poster, "An Amateur Radio CubeSat Communications System" on behalf of the RF communications team of the SFU Satellite Design team. During the last 9 months I've been fortunate to have worked with this amazing team of talented and inspired engineers. Before joining, I sat through countless meetings during the summer as a hopeful member. At the time, I had no idea what most of the words they used even meant. I was using Google more than I ever had.

But, persistence pays off. After attending many meetings, getting lost in research, and constantly bugging a few professors - I gradually felt like I was able to contribute to the project. Now our team is working on the design and manufacture of our PCBs, setting up and testing our ground station equipment, characterizing our antennas and filters, and much more. You can learn more about this project here.