Making a "cubesat" analogue for SARA eastern conference

[Andrew Thornett]

Dear All,

I am considering building a "carry-on CubeSat" that gathers data throughout my transatlantic flight to attend the SARA eastern conference. Can I ask everyone for their opinions on the ideas below? Is it worth it? Would you be interested in hearing the results at the conference (if it works)? Would you change the project in any way? Are you happy that this project is relevant to SARA members/can come under remit of radio astronomy? The BAA do include it, but I realise the line where radio astronomy stops, especially in relation to cosmology, is a bit fuzzy.

The idea is based on a similar project that is described on the MIT CosmicWatch website, so it is not new, but I dont think that matters - most of what we do is repeating for ourselves projects originally performed by other people.

The idea is that I build a "Pocket CubeSat Atmospheric Radiation Observatory" consisting of:

• CosmicWatch detector
• Raspberry Pi Pico 2
• BME280
• GPS module
• SD card logger
• USB power bank

all mounted in a 10 cm × 10 cm 3D-printed frame.

The key science objective would be:

Measure the variation of cosmic-ray muon flux from ground level in the UK, through take-off, cruise at ~35,000 ft, and landing in the USA.

Core payload (cheap and useful):

1. CosmicWatch muon detector

This would be my primary instrument.

The increase in cosmic ray flux with altitude is dramatic and should be very obvious during cruise altitude.

From this data, I could produce a graph of:

Muon counts

Time

Altitude

and show it at the conference.

2. Barometric pressure sensor

Rather than GPS altitude.

A cheap:

BMP280

BME280

module costs only a few pounds.

Advantages:

Works anywhere.

Tiny power consumption.

Gives pressure, temperature and estimated altitude.

3. IMU

An MPU6050 or MPU9250.

Measures:

Acceleration

Orientation

Aircraft turns

Turbulence

Interesting to correlate with flight phases.

4. GPS (optional)

A u-blox module is inexpensive.

I could include it, but not depend on it.

If I get window-seat reception then this would give me:

Position

Ground speed

Time reference

Otherwise the project still works.

5. Computing.

I am considering a Raspberry Pi Pico 2.

Advantages:

£5

Very low power

Instant startup

Plenty of GPIO

Logs directly to SD card

A Pi Zero 2 is another possibility, but is probably more powerful and expensive than needed.

Where could we go with this project in future?

If it works, and attendees like the project and its results, then perhaps we could consider writing it up as "Cubesat in a Box" - as part of an emerging catalogue of "SARA projects in a box", alongside "Scope in a Box".

Andy

[Don Latham]

Interesting, Andrew. barometric pressure sensor won't get you altitude :-) luggage compartments are if I remember, pressurized. . .

 

------------
Don Latham
PO Box 404,
Frenchtown, MT, 59846
406-626-4304

 

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From: 'Andrew Thornett' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
To: 'Dr. Rich Russel' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, 9 June 2026 1:34 PM MDT
Subject: [SARA] Making a "cubesat" analogue for SARA eastern conference

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[Stephen Arbogast]

Sounds cool....  I would say  go for it!   But  will it pass  security?  I would hate to see  your work confiscated at  the  airport in UK.

[Andrew Thornett]

Ahhh Don! You've found the flaw in my design!

Sent from Outlook for Android

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From: 'Stephen Arbogast' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 09 June 2026 23:53:12
To: Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [SARA] Making a "cubesat" analogue for SARA eastern conference

 

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[Stephen Arbogast]

If you get it past  security maybe  ask a flight  attendant to as the Captain for  your  cruising  altitude.

[Jonathan Pettingale]

Or use a flight tracking service......

[Marcus Fisher]

Anything where you build your own electronics and program it is fun to hear about. Evening discussions would be fun to discuss it. I believe Tom Crowley might opine as I thought he had some students working muon detection. 

Your altitude via pressure won't work, hopefully, but you can get the flights altitude afterwards and then correlate your data (you may want to timestamp your data). 

Fun working on these kinds of things

-- Marcus Fisher

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[Andrew Thornett]

I think the CosmicWatch muon detector software already adds time to the data file - is that what you mean when you day timestamp the data?

Sent from Outlook for Android

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From: sara...@googlegroups.com <sara...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Marcus Fisher <marcus....@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 10 June 2026 00:47:52
To: sara...@googlegroups.com <sara...@googlegroups.com>

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[Don Latham]

Also, no batteries in checked luggage. But, if you have a pico-mu with batt you can put it in carry on. International flights with so-called entertainment displays will have position and altitude "real-time" displays if I remember right, and flight altitudes are usually fairly constant, so timed notes or periodic 'phone pictures would enable a reasonable database.  In addition, a look at cancer incidence among pilots vs gen. pop. might also be interesting.

 

------------
Don Latham
PO Box 404,
Frenchtown, MT, 59846
406-626-4304

 

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From: 'Andrew Thornett' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>

To: sara-list <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, 9 June 2026 4:58 PM MDT

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[Don Latham]

You have to set up the clock in the cosmic watch but yes, the data are timestamped.

------------
Don Latham
PO Box 404,
Frenchtown, MT, 59846
406-626-4304

 

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From: 'Andrew Thornett' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>

To: sara-list <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 10 June 2026 2:12 AM MDT

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[Mike Otte]

Dr. Wayne McCain has presented development of Cube satellites at several  SARA conferences.  Not a personal one. Good luck with security. Maybe just stay with the Muon detector?

BR

Mike

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--

Mike Otte W9YS

[andrew....@googlemail.com]

Thanks Don

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[andrew....@googlemail.com]

Very good suggestions

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[Scott Elliott]

Is the battery restriction only for lithium?  Are old school alkyne batteries OK?  You should also check if GPS is allowed.  I seem to recall that all devices with a GPS are supposed to turn off the GPS in flight (probably applies to anything that communicates to anything off the plane).    

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