Payload has 2 primary subsystems - Primary and Secondary Payload. Primary Payload consists of the SelfieSat Camera Payload and its associated components, while the Secondary Payload consists of the QEYnet laser beacon, as well as a secondary payload camera to help maintain attitude.
For the primary payload, our mission is simple. When an ARO (ameteur radio operator) requests for us to take an image during a pass, we take the image and link it down to them. The responsibility of the Payload team begins when we receive a signal from CDH that it is time to take a picture, and ends when we send compressed JPEG image data over to CDH so it can be transmitted down to the ARO. We are responsible for taking the image and compressing it down to a size that is suitable for transmission. For more information on this, see [page].
The secondary payload mission is in partnership with QEYnet. They are providing a laser beacon which will sit on the CubeSat and send an IR beacon down to Earth - for our purposes, we can treat it as a black box. In order for the beacon to function properly, however, we must maintain attitude to with 0.1-0.2 degrees, which requires supplemental attitude control which Payload is responsible for.
To maintain attitude to the required accuracy, QEYnet is providing a laser ground station which will shoot a laser at the satellite. We will have a camera that will detect this laser and determine where it is coming from, and use that information to feed attitude adjustments to ADCS. The responsibility of payload starts with the parameters of the laser ground station and ends when we send attitude information to CDH, to be forwarded on to ADCS.
Primary Payload consists of 3 Components - the camera itself, the lens for the camera, and the software used to communicate the image data to CDH so it can be transmitted down to the spacecraft.
You can find the camera we selected, as well as information on howe we selected it, at Image Sensor Selection Guide. The purpose of the sensor is to take a photo, as per mission requirements.
The purpose of the lens is to keep the FOV of the camera within the limits described in the competition. For more information, see Lens selection .
There are two software components that Primary Payload is responsible for - the firmware that will allow the OBC to communicate with the camera and extract the image data, and the image compression software that will make the image small enough to transmit via the Comms downlink.
Secondary Payload has 6 Components - the laser ground station, the secondary payload camera, the secondary payload, secondary payload optical filters, the firmware to communicate with the camera, and finally our algorithm to translate image data into attitude information.
Camera selection for the Secondary Payload has not yet started. The camera must be able to detect the laser beam and take a photo of it.