Annabelle Grant named winner of Yukon College CubeSat idea contest

WHITEHORSE—Out of 15 submitted ideas from 15 contest participants, Annabelle Grant has been named the winner of the Yukon CubeSat idea contest.  

Grant’s name was pulled from a hat last week. Her idea for the micro-satellite payload is to have it track solid waste in oceans through photographs from low earth orbit. 

Other notable ideas submitted to the contest last month involve using data collected from space for education and outreach with the public, using the CubeSat to transmit Yukon stories through amateur radio frequencies, and capturing visual and magnetic studies of the aurora. 

As the contest winner, Grant’s name will be featured on the 10cm x 10cm x 20cm satellite due to be launched into orbit in 2020. 

Inspired by the suggested ideas, the Yukon CubeSat Mission Control team has decided to move forward with a payload featuring a simple sensor suite to examine a position, magnetic field, solar irradiance, and a camera on a deployable arm to capture images of the Earth and the satellite itself where a small screen will be visible, showing text transmitted from Earth.  

“The camera and the magnetometer are inspired by the aurora studies ideas. The solar irradiance and temperature sensors are derived from ideas with regards to simple payloads and altitude determination and control. We are also hoping that with the sensors onboard that data collected could be used for ideas and analysis that have yet to be thought up,” said Spencer Sumanik, project coordinator. 

The Yukon College CubeSat project is part of the Canadian CubeSat Project, a Canada-wide initiative funded by the Canadian Space Agency which has provided grants for 15 Cube Satellites across the country. Yukon College has partnered with Aurora College in the N.W.T. and the University of Alberta for this project.  

For more information on the project or, if you are a student, to get involved, please visit yukonsat.ca. 

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