A Baptism of Fire: The STRaND-1 Nanosatellite

The CubeSat standard has inspired a new wave of engineers, researchers, and scientists – all aiming to utilise „commercial off-the-shelf‟ (COTS) subsystems to build nanosatellite systems. For this same reason, students and staff at Surrey have been designing a 3U CubeSat with the intention of providing low-level design, build and test experience for early career engineers, provide on-orbit demonstration of key technologies in attitude and orbit control systems (AOCS), and finally assess smart-phone components for future spacecraft applications. The modern smart-phone is the latest in a consumer driven and start-of-the-art electronics market which the STRaND-1 mission aims to exploit; assessing hardware components and exploring software towards new methods in designing and operating new satellites. The „Surrey Training, Research and Nanosatellite Demonstrator‟ is the first in a line of ambitious missions which aims to strengthen the ties between Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). The project began in April 2010 where STRaND-1 was designed in the team‟s free time but the major build work began in mid-October 2012. Launched on 25 February 2013, the assembly, integration and test (AIT) phase took approximately 4 months to complete. This paper discusses this phase and the typical-CubeSat subsystems and non-PC/104 AOCS and computing payloads in a custom payload bay. In-orbit results of the new nanosatellite power, attitude and orbit control system are presented. With many new capabilities to demonstrate on STRaND-1 when in-orbit, exploiting the latest consumer electronics and software with real training and mission utility was disruptive. We evaluate the ground-based operational processes during commissioning.