Session
Swifty Session II
Abstract
New architectural and affordable Advanced Manufacturing (AM) techniques were successfully demonstrated on eight 1U-6U CubeSat payloads, launched over the past 8 months, followed by the launch of a sixty ThinSat (1/7U) constellation on April 17, 2019. The modular AM CubeSat systems tested in orbit (TRL=9) included new robotic manufacturing of unibody and articulating foldout structures, robotic assembly and testing of Globalstar Simplex radios, new ThinSat form factor, and many other subsystems.
The Globalstar links for the eight commercial CubeSats were all 100% successful and demonstrated for the first time, excellent polar 24/7 global coverage with latency of only several seconds. The new NSL “Black Box” with GPS is flight proven for near real-time tracking, ID verification, diagnostics, satellite recovery, and as a powerful redundant link. The constellation of 60 educational ThinSats were successfully deployed from the three 3U launch tubes, with the novel spring-loaded articulating panels all appeared to have unfolded gracefully. Within the first 12 hours 52 of the 60 ThinSats turned on immediately to reported back the satellite and student payload status. With a relatively high tumbling rate, about 5% of the full packets were received; however, over 95% of the partial packets were received.
Architecture & Manufacture for 1/7U to 27U 60 ThinSat Constellations: Flight Results
New architectural and affordable Advanced Manufacturing (AM) techniques were successfully demonstrated on eight 1U-6U CubeSat payloads, launched over the past 8 months, followed by the launch of a sixty ThinSat (1/7U) constellation on April 17, 2019. The modular AM CubeSat systems tested in orbit (TRL=9) included new robotic manufacturing of unibody and articulating foldout structures, robotic assembly and testing of Globalstar Simplex radios, new ThinSat form factor, and many other subsystems.
The Globalstar links for the eight commercial CubeSats were all 100% successful and demonstrated for the first time, excellent polar 24/7 global coverage with latency of only several seconds. The new NSL “Black Box” with GPS is flight proven for near real-time tracking, ID verification, diagnostics, satellite recovery, and as a powerful redundant link. The constellation of 60 educational ThinSats were successfully deployed from the three 3U launch tubes, with the novel spring-loaded articulating panels all appeared to have unfolded gracefully. Within the first 12 hours 52 of the 60 ThinSats turned on immediately to reported back the satellite and student payload status. With a relatively high tumbling rate, about 5% of the full packets were received; however, over 95% of the partial packets were received.
