UKube-1: A Multi-Payload Technology Demonstration Platform. Ritchie Logan, Steve Greenland, Clyde Space Ltd

Transcription

1 UKube-1: A Multi-Payload Technology Demonstration Platform Ritchie Logan, Steve Greenland, Clyde Space Ltd

2 Outline 1. Timeline and functional overview 2. Payload Details & Management 3. Enabling Rapid Development and AIT 4. Conclusions

3 UKube-1 United Kingdom Universal Bus Experiment Artist s impression

4 Mission Objectives Ukube-1 shall demonstrate: new UK space technology the capability of useful science to be performed within a CubeSat sized spacecraft industry and university based training in spacecraft development education and outreach in STEM subjects Payload Kick-Off to flight qualified spacecraft in less than 12 months

5 Mission Team Project Management, Technical review S-Band Transmitter Partnership Majority of effort is self-funded Exciting coalition of the willing Platform prime FUNCube Platform support Mission Computer

6 Timeline 18 months to design and build a 3U CubeSat July 2010 Official announcement by Science Minister at Farnborough July 2010 Platform Kickoff in Clyde Space Nov 2010 Official AO for payloads 22 Responses Jan Payloads selected Mar Payloads Downselected for flight Summer 2011 Platform and payload AIVT Dec 2011 Launch Design and deliver Interface Emulator

7 Platform Overview S-band Patch Antenna

8 Additional FUNCube Payload FUNCube Transceiver provides Provides a full-duplex transceiver for the platform (secondary transceiver for very low data rate communications) Provides education & outreach objectives and infrastructure, with the aim to integrate with UKSA outreach and the UKube program beyond this pilot with existing AMSAT experience Provides a pre-made payload for leading the platform-payload integration effort Provides and supports the amateur radio community in response to their support in frequency allocation Harnesses the experience of professional amateurs into the UKube program Provides redundancy for the FUNcube spacecraft

9 4x Payloads now selected Astrium Janus Cosmic Radiation random number generator Techdemo for effects of radiation on Xilinx FPGA UKSEDS MyPocketQub Miniature platform for up to 365 additional experiments Techdemo of OS s/craft Open University Imager Take high quality images Techdemo of a European CMOS imager using 0.18u process Univ of Bath TOPCAT Dual freq COTS GPS Techdemo of GPS for measurement of space weather in plasmasphere

10 Payload Management From early in the program, we knew that the payloads would be provided via an open competition Platform and payload development would need to happen concurrently Physical envelope was fairly easy Power and data more difficult Interface Emulator

11 Interface Emulator Out of box solution for payload providers allowing rapid development Emulates mechanical and electrical interfaces Multiple emulators enable multiple payloads Concurrent development of payloads Concurrent development of platform Minimise integration time between platform and payload

12 Interface Emulator 2x Arduino up boards 4x power switches Full mechanical interface Payload I2C and Comms SPI CSK PC/104 Header CSK PC/104 Standoff Routing Blocks (4) 3.3V (4) 5V (4) 12V (4) BATV (10) (2) Power Switches Power Sources GND BATV 12V 5V 3.3V Payload IO (30) Payload Header Comms SPI Level Translator Switching Payload Arduino Platform Arduino Synch Pulse Arduino Dock Data Header USB I2C I2C Block USB

13 Working with CSK (PC/104) The dilemma Wide variety of COTS subsystems Cost & availability benefits PC/104 is not ideal during subsystem development and AIVT Debugging of new subsystems very difficult

14 CSK Format Flatsat Interface Board dock 6x PC/104 Board docks Extension Connectors 1x inverted Board dock 104 LEDs and 104 Test points

15 Interface Board Primary interface for test equipment and computer Power interface for CubeSat Simulation of sep switch/pull pin on CubeSat structure Both Pumpkin and Isis format

16 Aiding Rapid Development Using flatsat to aid debugging of UKube systems Plan to make some (small) changes Supports PCB thickness? Expect to have ready for wider use early Q2

17 Conclusions Novel technical approaches (hardware and software emulators) facilitate community based engineering projects CubeSats present an excellent opportunity as a low cost tech demo platform When government funds become available, act quickly to secure! COTS + rapid development of subsystems allows this to happen UKube1 is envisaged as the pilot for a full national Cubesat programme supported by Government, industry and academia. Announcement on the pilot will hopefully be made in the summer, UK Space Agency budget negotiations permitting.

18 facebook.com/clydespace twitter.com/clydespace Questions?