Session
Pre-Conference Workshop Session II: A Look Back: Lessons Learned
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
The Ionospheric Scintillation eXplorer (ISX) mission is a collaboration between SRI International and Cal Poly. The ISX space weather investigation seeks to better understand the physics of naturally occurring Equatorial Spread F ionospheric irregularities by deploying a passive UHF radio scintillation receiver. Rocket Lab’s Electron-4 launch vehicle successfully placed ISX into a nearly sun synchronous orbit 500km above the surface of the Earth, however contact was never made with the spacecraft. Since this anomaly, Cal Poly has taken an extensive look into the possible failure causes on ISX, including a system level fault tree and additional testing with the engineering test unit. The primary takeaway from the failure analysis is the importance of testing beyond what is considered normal for CubeSats. The second main conclusion reinforces the important role that adequately documenting the spacecraft design, fabrication, and testing plays in performing a post hoc failure analysis. In addition to presenting analysis outcomes, this paper addresses both of these main takeaways.
A Deeper Look into the Ionospheric Scintillation eXplorer (ISX): A Failure Analysis
Utah State University, Logan, UT
The Ionospheric Scintillation eXplorer (ISX) mission is a collaboration between SRI International and Cal Poly. The ISX space weather investigation seeks to better understand the physics of naturally occurring Equatorial Spread F ionospheric irregularities by deploying a passive UHF radio scintillation receiver. Rocket Lab’s Electron-4 launch vehicle successfully placed ISX into a nearly sun synchronous orbit 500km above the surface of the Earth, however contact was never made with the spacecraft. Since this anomaly, Cal Poly has taken an extensive look into the possible failure causes on ISX, including a system level fault tree and additional testing with the engineering test unit. The primary takeaway from the failure analysis is the importance of testing beyond what is considered normal for CubeSats. The second main conclusion reinforces the important role that adequately documenting the spacecraft design, fabrication, and testing plays in performing a post hoc failure analysis. In addition to presenting analysis outcomes, this paper addresses both of these main takeaways.
