A team of Carleton students, Cu3sat, recently placed in the top three in the first phase of a national satellite design competition Nov. 10.

The Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC) is a competition between teams from different Canadian universities to design and build a fully functional “cube-sat” satellite, which is about the size of a shoebox and weighs no more than nine kilograms, according to the CSDC website.

Cu3Sat designed a satellite that will detect coronal mass injections, which are streams of high-energy particles from the sun that pose a threat to all functioning satellites, according to project manager and team leader Natasha Jackson.

Advance warning of these streams would provide satellite operators with the ability to protect their satellites, Jackson said.

Jackson heard about the competition from the competition organizer at a conference and decided to get involved.

“It is one of the only competitions that can give us more hands on experience,” Jackson said.

Not only are the teams responsible for designing the satellite, but they must also meet outreach and education requirements as well as raise their own sources of funding, according to the CSDC website.

The hope is that the winning team will also have their satellite launched into orbit.

The competition was founded by Larry Reid from a company called Geocentrix Technologies based out of Vancouver, according to Ryan Anderson, the industry advisor for Carleton’s team.

Anderson said Reid started the competition because he saw the need for a competition like this in Canada to build Canada’s space program and to tie Canada’s universities together.  

“When I first heard of it I thought this is what Canada needs at the university level,” Anderson said. “It is nice to have something purely Canadian.”

Jackson said Cu3Sat is composed of around 20 undergraduate and graduate students in engineering and physics. Many of these students are working on aspects of the project that aren’t associated with their degrees.

“It is really broadening what they know and can do,” she said.

The next steps for Cu3Sat is to get everything down on paper and do a fair amount of simulation, Jackson said, in order to get ready for the critical design review in February 2012.

The team must also raise the money needed to build their satellite before the final phase of the competition in September.

Anderson said he is amazed at what Cu3sat has done.

“My favorite part has been seeing them do all this, a bunch of students start from nothing and place  highly in the competition” he said.

As the team continues to prepare for the next phase of the competition, Jackson said they’re always looking for new recruits to lend a hand.

“There is a great deal of technical and non-technical work to be done” she said.