INSPIRE-2 and Lessons Learned - Australian Centre for Space … · 2019. 9. 23. · • INSPIRE-2:...
Transcript of INSPIRE-2 and Lessons Learned - Australian Centre for Space … · 2019. 9. 23. · • INSPIRE-2:...
INSPIRE-2 and Lessons Learned
Aust. CubeSat Conf. 2019
Iver H. Cairns 1, C. Charles 2, A. Dempster 3, J. Funamoto 1, J.W. Cheong 3, W. Peacock 1, J. Lam 3, B. Osborne 3, W. Andrew 3, T. Croston,1,3, B. Southwell 3, R. Boswell 2, A. Monger, 1 C. Betters 1, S. Leon-Saval 1, J. Bland-Hawthorn 1, J. Khachan 1, X. Wu 1, S. Manidis 1, H. Brown 1, D. Dall 1, D. Tsifalkis 2, & S. Gordon1
1. U. Sydney, 2. ANU , 3.UNSW
1. Cubesats
• Units of cubes of 10.0 cm x 10.0cm x 10.0cm• < 1.3 kg per U ...
• Power of standards! Dotcom … price, capabilities, COTS. …
• ➔ Focus on instruments / services & not on bespoke satellite bus: not “toys for the boys & girls”
• 2U and 3U common now but trending bigger with time …
INSPIRE-2 (USYD, UNSW, ANU)
• Started 30/9/2015 & delivered 19 August 2016 .... < 10 months
USydney: 3+ payloads, components, assembly, integration, testing, launch, overall project, legal, leadership, ....
• QB50 multi-Needle Langmuir probe (mNLP)• Nanophotonic spectrograph (Nanospec)• Radiation counter • Microdosimeter
UNSW - Sydney: Spacecraft design, integration, testing, software
• Kea GPS instrument
ANU: Spacecraft COTS parts, groundstation, advice, AITC ...
Groundstations: ANU and UNSW
2. The INSPIRE-2 / AU03 CubeSat
➔ CubeSats can carry real instruments & be complex
• The 3 Australian QB50 CubeSats after thermal vacuum testing in Wombat-XL at ANU’s AITC:
UNSW-ECO INSPIRE-2 SUSat
•
www.qb50.eu
➔ 1) Australia can make CubeSats & 2) groups / constellations is natural evolution.
Design, Building, & Testing
• De-risk ➔modified version of UNSW design & mostly COTS bus
• INSPIRE-2 carried real instruments & was complex
3. In Orbit
• Launched from ISS 26 May 2017 (KSC ?? April)
• Radio quiet for 16 days. Major operation with
radio amateurs to establish contact.
• First beacons detected 11 June 2017
• Expected lifetime ≤ 1 year due to drag & re-entry
• Re-entered late November 2018 (1.5 year life).
3.1 First file downloaded for
INSPIRE-2
• Spacecraft battery, solar cells, and temperatures all fine.
• Can see expected effects of day – night transitions
• Balmy day in space
battery voltage
Temperatures
charging current
output current
200100Time (mins)
INSPIRE-2 lived over 1 year in space!
Battery voltage
Charging current
Current on 3.3 or 5 V rail
Temperature
Days since 19 June 2017400300100
4.0 Damaged
in a Space
Weather event
charging
current
• Stable battery voltage and
day-night solar cell variations
• Spacecraft went quiet for 1.5
months after 1st major solar
particle event for 1 year:
space weather event.
• Filesystem corrupted & Tcom = 0
due to Comms board damage.
• Recovered spacecraft & reset
beacon.
• Space weather damage
Temperatures
**
5. Conclusions
• INSPIRE-2 and 2 other Australian-built QB50 CubeSats are in space now:- Demonstrated existence of Australian space capability and breaking the
economic barrier to Australia entering space community
• INSPIRE-2 had 5 instruments (mNLP, Nanospec, Kea GPS, and 2 radiation detectors), 4 Australian, and a mostly COTS bus. (Complex & sophisticated)
• INSPIRE-2: start to delivery in 10 months (first partial stack to delivery in 4 months). Cash cost < $150 K. Multiple students.
• INSPIRE-2 was alive in space for 1.5 years, in good health except for Comms.
• Strong evidence that INSPIRE-2 suffered a large space weather event in July 2017 that damaged its Comms system.
– Unlucky since only large event in the last 1.5 years.
• INSPIRE-2 orbital variations provide evidence for atmospheric variations, space weather / SSA effects …. ongoing work.
• Remember … 1) Power of standards & COTS, 2) Focus on outcomes not engineering (not toys ..), 3) Low cost, real benefits, 4) Lifetimes > 1 year, 5) Constellations … 6) Science, engineering, commercial, Government …
Change in slope of altitude (t) with major F10.7cm radio events
Day s of Mission
a (km) F10.7 cm radio flux
Relatively upwards
Relatively downwards
Clear IncreaseIn slope