BIRDS-X

A collaborative effort between AlbertaSat and CalgaryToSpace

S-Band Ground Station (VE6 LRN) in collaboration with NARC

What is BIRDS-X?

Birds-X was a competition held by the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) and CubeTech, open to any university / student group. The goal was to create a board capable of, at minimum, an Analog Packet Report System and a Digiputer. Only 5 entries out of all the submissions were accepted.

Phases of BIRDS-X

1. Proposal: Competitors had to write a proposal detailing the base functions of the board. In a sense, we had to convince KIT to let us show them a prototype.
2. Proof of Concept: Teams passing this phase had to construct a prototype of the proposal using breadboards, and send it to KIT for their testing and examination.
3. Delivery of Product: The victory lap; the 5 teams who made it to this stage were tasked to create a printed circuit board (PCB) to be delivered to KIT. From there, KIT would place the board onto their Dragonfly rocket for use in its lifespan.

What is JASPER? [CalgaryToSpace & AlbertaSat partnership]

JASPER stands for Joint Albertan Space Project for Experience and Research. JASPER was an Albertan team comprised of the University of Calgary’s cube satellite team, CalgaryToSpace, and ourselves. We agreed to co-develop a board for the BIRDS-X competition.

JASPER’s Submission and Placement

The JASPER team included a radiation detector which used pixels on a camera to detect radiation, as whenever they’re struck by radioactive particles, pixels will turn white. For more information on the technical information, click here to view JASPER’s GitHub page.

We say with great pride that JASPER’s board was one of the 5 selected to be flown on DragonFly.

Current Status

We have delivered JASPER’s board to the KIT and are now awaiting news of Dragonfly’s launch!