SunbYte II

Due to the progress made in SunbYte I, SunbYte II was born. SunbYte II was flown on 4 September 2018 under the High Altitude Student Payload (HASP) programme run by NASA.

Sunbyte two launch
On

HASP programme

The High Altitude Student Payload is a programme run by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The High Altitude Student Platform is designed to carry up to twelve student payloads to an altitude of about 36 kilometres with flight durations of 15 to 20 hours using a small volume, zero pressure balloon.

The payloads carried by HASP are designed and built by students and are used to flight-test compact satellites or prototypes and to fly other small experiments.


Team

Project leader: Iakov Bobrov
Electrical team leader: Gianni Heung
Mechanical team leader: George Robinson
Systems engineer: Yun Hang Cho
Solar physicist: Alex Hamilton

Mechanical team:
Arthur Cunningham
Joycelyn Fontanilla
Brandon O'Connell
Tom Holford
George Robinson
Theo Glashier

Electrical team:
Sagar Shah
Yadav Dosieah
Federico Orrego
Abdulla Omaruddin


Academic advisors

Dr Ben Snow

School of Mathematics and Statistics, the University of 91Ö±²¥

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 Sergio 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


Professional support

Mrs Jaye Taylor

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, the University of 91Ö±²¥

Dr Everth Hernandez-Nava

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of 91Ö±²¥

Ms Megan Hobbs

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, the University of 91Ö±²¥

Mr Mark Wrigley

Alternative Photonics

Dr Guillaume Zoppi

Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University


Activities and updates

  • Watch the team describe how our telescope works and find out the differences between Sunbyte and a ground-based telescope.
  • Launch day, attempt two, 4 September 2018
  • The team recovering the gondola, parachute and payloads.
  • A successful launch, the telescope is moving and working as we would expect.
Sunbyte two launch
Sunbyte two launch
  • Launch video
  • Waiting to fly, CSBF team preparing the payload.
CSBF team preparing the payload
  • Preparation for launch
  • Preparation for launch
  • Launch roll out 
  • Launch day, attempt one, 1 September 2018
  • Flight scrubbed due to the weather
  • Leaving for launch site
  • Tour of the facility
  • Integration complete, now to focus on ensuring SunbYte is ready to launch, 23 August 2018
  • Arrived safely with the payload at NASA CSBF, 25 July 2018
  • The ground station system is now operational and ready to receive and interpret data. The ground station is a key part of the mission as we need to know what is going on when we are 36, 000 ft below the telescope. 19 June 2018
  • The gimble responsible for moving the telescope to point towards the sun is now operational. With a lot of code and even greater amount of brain power required, the problems with the gimble are resolved and finally completed. 19 June 2018
  • Presentation at Pint of Science, alongside MoonWorks and SunrIde, 91Ö±²¥, 18 May 2018
Team members at Pint of Science 2018
  • Presentation at Get Up to Speed, Magna Science Adventure Centre, 91Ö±²¥, 18 April 2018
Sunbyte at the 'get up to speed' event at Magna, 91Ö±²¥.
  • Poster presentation and one minute pitch at the European Space Agency's second symposium on Space Educational Activities, Budapest, Hungary, 12 April 2018
Sunbyte poster for the European Space Agency's symposium
  • British conference of undergraduate research, 12-13 April 2018
Sunbyte at the British conference of undergraduate research
  • SunbYte II CAD model, 23 March 2018
Sunbyte two CAD model
  • SunbYte II prototype for HASP, 6 March 2018
SunbYte two prototype
  • SURE showcase, the University of 91Ö±²¥, 13 February 2018
Team members at the SURE showcase
  • SynbYte II cardboard prototype
Cardboard prototype

Centres of excellence

The University's cross-faculty research centres harness our interdisciplinary expertise to solve the world's most pressing challenges.