Session
Technical Session VI: Advanced Technologies & Subsystems, Components & Sensors (I)
Abstract
Driven by the personal computer and personal communications markets, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) microelectronic systems have advanced considerably in the last few years, making it now feasible to construct highly capable “nano-satellites” (i.e. sub-10 kg satellites) to provide cost-effective and rapid-response, orbiting-test-vehicles for advanced space missions and technologies. The UK’s first nano-satellite: SNAP-1 - designed and built by Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) staff - is an example of such a test-vehicle, in this case, built with the primary objective of demonstrating that a sophisticated, fully agile nano-satellite can be constructed rapidly, and at very low cost, using an extension of the modular-COTS-based design philosophy pioneered by Surrey for its micro-satellites. SNAP-1 was successfully lofted into orbit on June 28th 2000 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome on-board a Russian Cosmos launch vehicle. It flew alongside a Russian COSPAS-SARSAT satellite called Nadezhda, and an SSTL-built Chinese micro-satellite, called Tsinghua-1. The first year of operations has been highly successful, with SNAP-1 becoming the first nano-satellite to have demonstrated full attitude and orbit control via its miniature momentum-wheel-based attitude control system and its butane-propellant-based propulsion system. This paper discusses Surrey’s design philosophy for COTS-based nano-satellites, and reviews the initial results of the SNAP-1 mission.
SNAP-1: A Low Cost Modular COTS-Based Nano-Satellite – Design, Construction, Launch and Early Operations Phase
Driven by the personal computer and personal communications markets, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) microelectronic systems have advanced considerably in the last few years, making it now feasible to construct highly capable “nano-satellites” (i.e. sub-10 kg satellites) to provide cost-effective and rapid-response, orbiting-test-vehicles for advanced space missions and technologies. The UK’s first nano-satellite: SNAP-1 - designed and built by Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) staff - is an example of such a test-vehicle, in this case, built with the primary objective of demonstrating that a sophisticated, fully agile nano-satellite can be constructed rapidly, and at very low cost, using an extension of the modular-COTS-based design philosophy pioneered by Surrey for its micro-satellites. SNAP-1 was successfully lofted into orbit on June 28th 2000 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome on-board a Russian Cosmos launch vehicle. It flew alongside a Russian COSPAS-SARSAT satellite called Nadezhda, and an SSTL-built Chinese micro-satellite, called Tsinghua-1. The first year of operations has been highly successful, with SNAP-1 becoming the first nano-satellite to have demonstrated full attitude and orbit control via its miniature momentum-wheel-based attitude control system and its butane-propellant-based propulsion system. This paper discusses Surrey’s design philosophy for COTS-based nano-satellites, and reviews the initial results of the SNAP-1 mission.
