STARS 1 (Kukai)

STARS 1

STARS 1

STARS 1 (Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite), also known as Kukai, consists of a Mother Satellite and a Daughter Satellite connected by a tether. 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. For the purpose of the mission:

• 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.