UTS leads space research

Through Associate Professor Sam Reisenfeld of the Engineering Faculty, UTS is playing a major role in developing an electronic package that performs specific tasks for Australia's FedSat satellite to be launched next year from Japan.

Recently, the director of satellite communications from Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation visited UTS to conduct discussions with Professor Reisenfeld; and the head of Singapore's leading electronics research organisation toured the satellite research facilities at the Broadway campus and showed a keen interest in the University's current research capabilities in this field.

Professor Reisenfeld's 13- person research team, which includes five doctoral students, is involved in the design, construction and testing of fast-tracking KA-band earth stations. His team focuses on the earth station segment for communications payload at KA-band, which is a new frequency band for commercial satellite services. "We have already verified the central performance of both the earth station and the satellite equipment," he said. Professor Reisenfeld has also developed a tracking pedestal with two motors to steer the earth station's dish antenna to specific points in the sky, thus enabling it to provide full hemispherical coverage.

CSIRO and the University of South Australia are also handling major aspects of FedSat's electronics, which will be merged and integrated within the satellite being constructed and tested in Canberra.