STARS 1, 2 (Kukai, Gennai)

STARS 1 [Kagawa University]

STARS 1 [Kagawa University]

Kagawa University's STARS 1 (Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite), also known as Kukai, consists of a Mother Satellite and a Daughter Satellite connected by a tether 10 m in length. The Mother Satellite (Ku) deploys the tether having the Daughter Satellite (Kai) at its end. Daughter Satellite has one arm, and the tether is attached at its end. Then attitude control by arm motion using tether tension is possible. Main mission is to take pictures of a satellite during tether deployment.

The objectives of the mission are:

• Mother Satellite deploys tether having Daughter Satellite at its end;
• Daughter Satellite controls attitude of CCD camera by robot motion;
• Mother Satellite and Daughter Satellite communicate through Bluetooth.

The Daughter Satellite takes pictures of the Mother Satellite, and transmittes these to ground stations through amateur radio frequency.

The STARS 1 satellite was successfully launched, but suffered from problems during tether deployment, which eventually reached only a few decimeters and stability issues.

An improved version was launched as STARS 2. The maximum tether extension length is about 350 m. After nearly two months in orbit, STARS-2 reentered Earth's atmosphere on 26 April 2014.