SunbYte III

SunbYte III is the third generation of SunbYte. Our intention is to improve upon the successes achieved in SunbYte I’s participation in Bexus, and SunbYte II’s participation in NASA’s highly acclaimed HASP program.

Project sunbyte launch
On

Aim

Our focus is still the same; to take high quality images of the sun at a lower cost.

High quality is achieved by elevating the payload to an altitude where pressure is low and atmospheric distortion is scarce. 

Lower cost (than space based telescopes), because the payload does not require a launch into space and for this reason is lighter because the payload does not have to withstand a rocket launch or the much more unforgiving environment of space.


Reason

Today, in the age of high technology, the ramifications of solar flares and changing solar weather are immense. It is possible for these events to negatively effect the technologies supported by satellites such as communications and navigation.

Secondary to this is supporting the learning of more than 30 engineering students.

The project supports many disciplines:

  • Control systems engineers, who guarantee the functionality of attitude and determination of the telescope.
  • Electronics team, who connect their algorithms to the hardware designed by our structures.
  • Optics and thermal teams, which themselves house multiple engineering fields.

Team

Project leaders

Project leader: Sagar Shah
Vice project leader: Roisin Clear
Technical lead: Joshua Brownlow

Sub-team leaders

Communications: Stefan Stoian
ADCS: Wayel Kamal
Structures: Prathamesh Khatavkar and Kevin Kristianto
Thermal: Emilie Brannan

Engineers

Electronics:
Abdullah Alsulami
Jahid Ahmed

Communications:
Abdel Alomari
Abdulla Omaruddin
David Chung
George Basta

ADCS:
Grigoris Michos
Khalid Tubeileh
Omar Mohamed
Thomas Tai

Optics:
Gabriel Mason
Vaiva Zokaite

Thermal:
Bobby Brailsford
Dana Arabiyat
Oscar Downing

Structures:
Daniel Pickering
Daniele Ferretti
Joycelyn Fontanilla
Tom Dowson

Business team

Finance:
Joseph Middleton
Ciara Barrett

Outreach:
William Matthews
Gan Jiang


Academic advisors

Dr Ben Snow

School of Mathematics and Statistics, the University of Sheffield

Dr Eamon Scullion

Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University

Dr Sergiy Shelyag

Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University

Dr Dave Jess

Department of Mathematics and Physics, Queens University Belfast

Dr Sergei Zharkov

Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Hull

Dr James McLaughlin

Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University

Dr Richard Morton

Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University

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