Abstract
South Africa’s first satellite, SUNSAT, has led to a network of space activities in South Africa, including the formation of a new commercial micro-satellite organisation, Sun Space & Information Systems (Pty) Ltd, as a spin-off company of the University of Stellenbosch. The SUNSAT satellite was a graduate student-developed project, and included a NASA GPS receiver for occultation research, laser reflectors, magnetometers, star cameras, amateur radio communications, and a 15-m resolution, 3456 pixel, 3-band, stereo-capable push broom imager, and a live PAL TV downlink. As OSCAR-35 (SO-35), SUNSAT’s amateur radio FM audio transponders provided excellent performance.
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References
Milne G.W., Schoonwinkel, A., du Plessis, J.J., Mostert, S., Steyn, W.H., van der Westhuizen, K., van der Merwe, D.A., Grobler, H., Koekemoer, J.A., Steenkamp, N: SUNSAT — Launch and First Six Month’s Orbital Performance. Proceedings of the Conference on Small Satellites #13, Utah, USA, September 1999
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Electronic Systems Laboratory, University of Stellenbosch : The Electronic Systems Laboratory
http://esl.ee.sun.ac.za May 1, 2001
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Stellenbosch. SUNSAT Home Page http://sunsat.ee.sun.ac.za. May 1, 2001
Sun Space and Information Systems Pty Ltd : http://www.sunspace.co.za May 1, 2001
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© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Milne, G.W., du Plessis, J.J., Koekemoer, J.A., Mostert, S., Schoonwinkel, A. (2002). SUNSAT to SunSpace: Meeting the Needs of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation. In: Rycroft, M., Crosby, N. (eds) Smaller Satellites: Bigger Business?. Space Studies, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3008-2_32
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3008-2_32
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