Ex-Alta 2
The Experimental Albertan #2 Satellite
The Experimental Albertan #2 (Ex-Alta 2) is part of the Canadian CubeSat Project, an initiative from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) designed to support student interest in space and provide valuable hands-on experience in the space industry. Ex-Alta 2 is part of a team of Canadian-built satellites, each with their own mission and team of contributors. Ex-Alta 2 was launched in March of 2023 alongside a resupply mission to the International Space Station. After the launch, Ex-Alta 2 lingered in orbit for approximately 7 months. Gathering data on wildfires up until it’s de-orbit in November, 2023.
Mission Objectives
- Predict, monitor, and aid in assessing wildfires and their after-effects using our in house, open-source, student designed imager.
- Catalogue and describe direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) magnetic fields at low earth orbit altitudes using a Digital Fluxgate Magnetometer (DFGM), which was designed at the University of Alberta during the Ex-Alta 1 era.
- Develop AlbertaSAT members into qualified personnel by enabling hands on design, building, operation of the satellite during it’s orbit, and the development of open-source.
- Enable the application of amateur radio in satellite design for AlbertaSAT members. Further information on AlbertaSAT’s commitment to supporting amateur radio can be found here
Within the Canadian CubeSat Project, AlbertaSat partnered with Aurora Research Institute and Yukon University to form the Northern SPIRIT satellite consortium. Which includes all three organizations’ satellites clubs: Ex-Alta 2, AuroraSat, and YukonSat respectively.
Credit: Canadian Space Agency
How Ex-Alta 2 Used and Supported Amateur Radio
The Ex-Alta 2 satellite employed our very own AlbertSAT ground station to facillitate communication between the satellite and our computers. To make this a reality AlbertaSAT created multiple antennae dedicated to S-Band frequencies and UHF frequencies as well working with the Northern Albertan Radio Club (NARC) members in conjunction with AlbertaSAT’s own certified radio amateur’s to make this happen!
Our UHF frequency attena, dubbed as Arke (see more information here), was create to enable full 360 degree signal coverage and ensure little to no loss on the signal strength around Ex-Alta 2. What this module performed was downlinking and up-linking of performance and status data to and from our ground station.
Our S-band frequency attenae named Hermes (more info here) is a one way attenae responsible for deleivering the payload data to the NARC’s ground station which then forwarded the data to the AlbertaSAT ground station.
How Ex-Alta 2 Studied Wildfires and Supported Open Source Development
Wildfires dramatically affect not only residents of Alberta, but many communities around the globe. At the time of writing, Canada-wide, an average of 2.1 million hectares of land are burned annually1 and the impact on the communities in rural areas at risk of wildfire damage is massive. Additionally, rising global temperatures mean that the number and intensity of wildfires is increasing every year.
With this in mind, AlbertaSat developed an in-house built multispectral imager dubbed Iris to be flown on-board Ex-Alta 2. Iris will be able to capture the forests in visible and invisible (infrared) light, providing scientists with the data to study wildfires and help protect us from their impact. Images taken of high risk zones will highlight vegetation growth which can provide clues as to when and where a wildfire will start. Many active wildfires produce huge amounts of aerosolized particles (smoke). Images of these smoke plumes can inform firefighters and scientists to where wildfires are occurring. Scorched and burnt earth as well as vegetation regrowth can be monitored over time using Iris. This is done to learn more about post fire recovery and the effects wildfires have on forest ecosystems. Ex-Alta 2 serve as a proof of concept for a constellation of cubesats that can accurately predict and monitor wildfires with the information being relayed to emergency services in a timely manner.
The Impact of Ex-Alta 2, Post Launch
Ex-Alta 2 enabled many of our AlbertaSAT team members to kick start their careers thanks to the hands on experience the club provided. Some notable companies our past team members who worked on AlbertaSAT are Lockheed Martin, Xiphos, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), MDA space, and Rocket Lab. Special mention to the team who worked on the Iris imager module wherein some of them eventually founded a company called Wyvern – a satellite imaging company based out of Edmonton!