TY - JOUR
T1 - Mission testing for improved reliability of CubeSats
AU - Doyle, Maeve
AU - Dunwoody, Rachel
AU - Finneran, Gabriel
AU - Murphy, David
AU - Reilly, Jack
AU - Thompson, Joseph
AU - Walsh, Sarah
AU - Erkal, Jessica
AU - Fontanesi, Gianluca
AU - Mangan, Joseph
AU - Marshall, Fergal
AU - Salmon, Lána
AU - Ha, Lily
AU - Mills, Aldous
AU - Palma, David
AU - de Faoite, Daithí
AU - Greene, Derek
AU - Martin-Carrillo, Antonio
AU - McBreen, Sheila
AU - McKeown, David
AU - O’Connor, William
AU - Stanton, Kenneth
AU - Ulyanov, Alexei
AU - Wall, Ronan
AU - Hanlon, Lorraine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 ESA and CNES
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - CubeSats are a small satellite technology that first emerged in the space sector in the early 2000s. Their low-cost, fast-delivery design has made space more accessible, leading to a significant increase in the number of satellites launched per year as well as the number of nations launching satellites. As an example, the Educational Irish Research Satellite, EIRSAT-1, is a CubeSat being developed by a student-led team at University College Dublin, aiming to launch Ireland’s first satellite. Originally viewed as educational tools, the capabilities of CubeSats to satisfy a wide range of aims, from technology demonstration to Earth observation and scientific aims, is growing as these satellite platforms advance. However, following two decades of launches, an issue still facing their success as a disruptive technology is the high failure rate of CubeSats. This is a result of the CubeSat design philosophy where, in lieu of challenging resource demands, higher levels of risk are more acceptable compared to conventional space missions. In an effort to reduce these risks, this work presents an overview and highlights the benefits of a testing technique, known as Mission Testing. Mission Testing differs from other satellite testing in that flight representative conditions are simulated during the test. This aspect of the test mitigates risks not addressed elsewhere, such as risks related to the order and duration of operations, and also offers a number of unique benefits, such as operations training for the Mission Control Team. As part of this work, results of a survey disseminated to CubeSat teams are presented, where the aspects of Mission Testing considered most valuable and lessons learned in light of on-orbit operations are identified. How these results have helped shape the Mission Test plans for the EIRSAT-1 mission are also discussed and overview of the test plans are presented. In addition to the benefits for EIRSAT-1, this study aims to provide a resource for CubeSat teams in general, wanting to improve mission reliability through comprehensive Mission Testing.
AB - CubeSats are a small satellite technology that first emerged in the space sector in the early 2000s. Their low-cost, fast-delivery design has made space more accessible, leading to a significant increase in the number of satellites launched per year as well as the number of nations launching satellites. As an example, the Educational Irish Research Satellite, EIRSAT-1, is a CubeSat being developed by a student-led team at University College Dublin, aiming to launch Ireland’s first satellite. Originally viewed as educational tools, the capabilities of CubeSats to satisfy a wide range of aims, from technology demonstration to Earth observation and scientific aims, is growing as these satellite platforms advance. However, following two decades of launches, an issue still facing their success as a disruptive technology is the high failure rate of CubeSats. This is a result of the CubeSat design philosophy where, in lieu of challenging resource demands, higher levels of risk are more acceptable compared to conventional space missions. In an effort to reduce these risks, this work presents an overview and highlights the benefits of a testing technique, known as Mission Testing. Mission Testing differs from other satellite testing in that flight representative conditions are simulated during the test. This aspect of the test mitigates risks not addressed elsewhere, such as risks related to the order and duration of operations, and also offers a number of unique benefits, such as operations training for the Mission Control Team. As part of this work, results of a survey disseminated to CubeSat teams are presented, where the aspects of Mission Testing considered most valuable and lessons learned in light of on-orbit operations are identified. How these results have helped shape the Mission Test plans for the EIRSAT-1 mission are also discussed and overview of the test plans are presented. In addition to the benefits for EIRSAT-1, this study aims to provide a resource for CubeSat teams in general, wanting to improve mission reliability through comprehensive Mission Testing.
KW - CubeSat
KW - Reliability
KW - Testing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114740860&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1117/12.2600305
DO - 10.1117/12.2600305
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85114740860
SN - 0277-786X
VL - 11852
JO - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
JF - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
M1 - 118526M
T2 - 2020 International Conference on Space Optics, ICSO 2020
Y2 - 30 March 2021 through 2 April 2021
ER -