Design of Radio Telescope Calibration Payload for a Nano-Satellite

Abstract

The continued study of the history and expansion of the universe using radio telescopes has prompted a project to observe baryon acoustic oscillations by capturing neutral hydrogen gas as redshifted 21-cm radiation. This project, named Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), will consist of 2500 radio antennas arranged in rows within cylindrical reflectors based out of Penticton, BC, Canada. To assist in the phase calibration of CHIME’s instruments, the UBC ORBIT student club participating in the Geocentrix Technologies’ first annual Canadian Satellite Design Challenge, has proposed a project which will send a repeatable set of upchirped pulses (450-800MHz) from a specialized antenna that serves as the payload to a nano-satellite. Several mechanical, electrical and operational challenges exist due to critical dimension constraints of a three unit cube sat, low cost budget, low power requirements, low frequencies and large range of frequencies being emitted by the payload. This paper presents an effective design for a payload for the phase calibration of CHIME based double element Planar Inverted Cone (diPICA) with oval cut-outs. Details about Canada’s first nano-satellite competition, the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge, will also be provided. INTRODUCTION The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment is an experiment conceived by the CHIME team based out of the University of British Columbia’s Physics and Astronomy department. The purpose of this experiment is to map the expansion history of the universe, specifically hydrogen distribution in 3 dimensions, with the goal of determining the dynamics of dark energy on the rate of expansion of the universe. 355 Earth and Space 2012 © ASCE 2012