Appendix 2 – Comparison of nanosatellite systems Satellite

Mission objective

CanX - 1

► Verify the functionality of several technologies in orbital space

CanX - 2

► Demonstrate technologies that were identified to be critical for the upcoming CanX-4/5 formation-flying mission ► Provide cost-effective access to space for the research and development community in Canada

BRITE (CanX-3)

CanX-4 & CanX-5

Payloads

Formation flying

▪ CMOS imagers: - monochrome imager used to test the feasibility of taking star/moon/horizon pictures; - color imager used to take pictures of Earth; ▪ Active Magnetic Attitude Control System ▪ GPS receiver; ▪ ARM7-based On-Board Computer ▪ atmospheric spectrometer: detecting airborne greenhouse gases; ▪ GPS occultation experiment; ▪ photon detector: testing a new atomic oxygen resistant surface treatment; ▪ communication protocol experiment

► Understand luminous stars and the lifecycle of matter ► Investigate the variability and structure of the most luminous stars in our Galaxy

▪ five-lens telescope with an aperture of 30mm ▪ two-dimensional, low power array detector (4560 × 3048 pixels, model Cypress IBIS414000)

► Demonstrate actual autonomous formation control

▪ inter- satellite separation system; ▪ propulsion system (CNAPS - Canadian Nanosatellite Advanced Propulsion System); ▪ GPS receiver; ▪ Inter-satellite Link (ISL)

Launching date

June 30, 2003

June 30, 2007

▪ BRITE-Constellation consists of: - UniBRITE - BRITE-AUSTRIA (TUG-SAT1) - two Canadian BRITE nanosatellites funded by Canadian Space Agency. ▪ the first network of satellites devoted to a fundamental problem in astrophysics ▪ two satellites with identical buses to keep non-recurring engineering costs to a minimum and provide full redundancy between the satellites ▪ both nanosatellites will be equipped with a dedicated computer to run the formation flying control algorithm, FIONA (Formation

early-2009

mid-2008

ION-F (UW DawgStar nanosatellite)

► Investigate the global ionospheric structure that affects the performance of space-based radars and other distributed satellite networks; ► Test autonomous formation flying and inter-satellite communications within the constellation; ► Baseline new technologies including micro-thrusters, magnetic gimbaled attitude control, and an Internet based operations center; ► Bring a unique, hands-on space experience to students in space systems engineering.

▪ science instrument to conduct ionospheric measurements ▪ Crosslink/GPS system provided by NASA and the Applied Physics Laboratory which allows the satellites to directly determine their relative position in the constellation and pass messages to each other.

Munin

► collect data on the auroral activity on both the northern and southern hemispheres, such that a global picture of the current state of activity can be made available online

▪ combined electron and ion spectrometer named MEDUSA (Miniaturized Electrostatic DUaltophat Spherical Analyzer); ▪ Neutral Particle Detector – DINA (Detector of Ions and Neutral Atoms); ▪ CCD camera for visible wavelengths used both for aurora imaging and attitude determination.

QuakeSat

► Detect, record, and downlink earthquake ELF (extremely low frequency) emission data; ► Demonstrate that the CubeSat/NanoSat design is a cost-effective platform for conducting significant space science research experiments

▪ single axis search coil magnetometer; ▪ small E-field dipole

flying Integrated Onboard Nanosatellite Algorithm) ▪ the first distributed satellite formation to investigate the electron density irregularities of the ionosphere; ▪ constellation of three nanosatellites deployed from the shuttle into a circular low-Earth orbit of approximately 380-km: - USUSAT (Utah State University) - DawgStar (University of Washington) - HokiSat (Virginia Polytechnic Institute) ▪ two different formations will be attempted: a) Leader-Follower; b) Same Ground-track

early-2003

November 21, 2000

June 30, 2003

► Demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing commercially-off-the-shelf (COTS) parts to construct a reliable, short mission microsatellite

Table 6.2 – Nanosatellite systems comparison