MAGNETO

MAGNETO [USC]

MAGNETO is a nanosatellite project of the University of Southern California/Space Engineering Research Center (USC/SERC). The purpose of the Cubesat flight is to allow students to build, integration and launch a 1.5U CubeSat within a single semester. The satellite will take magnetometer measurements during its orbit and send down to the USC ground station located in LA CA.

The satellite's objectives include creating a high fidelity map of magnetic field strength using Sponsor sensors, acquiring data in launch environment (to be transmitted once in orbit), and validating electronics on orbit.

USC Space Engineering Research Center has a student class project to build and launched a 1U Cubesat into LEO. Firefly has offered a free launch spot on the maiden Firefly-Alpha launch, and the cubesat will enter a LEO orbit. It is expected to only last 1-3 months in the orbit. The Cubesat is using a UHF Beacon only to send information down, with no active control and no uplink capability. STA requested to allow to transmit the data down in UHF amateur band. Due to the Covid-19 MAGNETO’s delivery delayed, it was moved to alternative opportunities in Fall of 2020 or Spring of 2021.