Session
Session X: Lessons Learned
Abstract
As part of the 3 Corner Satellite program, a commercial-grade amateur radio transceiver was adopted to be the main flight radio due to power, weight, and time constraints. While this particular item was not designed for space use, it did have features that would make it useful in the 3CS mission. In this paper, we will review the decision process that led us to choosing the radio and describe the process of modifying the radio for flight. This includes issues related to materials, modifications necessary to the radio to make it acceptable, the qualification testing required, and the validation that performance quality was not significantly lost in the process. During this process, we discovered that the radio can be made acceptable to the flight safety process provided that a thorough understanding of the components is achieved and a great deal of experimentation is done before hand to characterize the radio.
Preparing a COTS Radio for Flight - Lessons Learned from the 3 Corner Satellite Project
As part of the 3 Corner Satellite program, a commercial-grade amateur radio transceiver was adopted to be the main flight radio due to power, weight, and time constraints. While this particular item was not designed for space use, it did have features that would make it useful in the 3CS mission. In this paper, we will review the decision process that led us to choosing the radio and describe the process of modifying the radio for flight. This includes issues related to materials, modifications necessary to the radio to make it acceptable, the qualification testing required, and the validation that performance quality was not significantly lost in the process. During this process, we discovered that the radio can be made acceptable to the flight safety process provided that a thorough understanding of the components is achieved and a great deal of experimentation is done before hand to characterize the radio.
