Aerospace (Sep 2019)

Design, Implementation, and Operation of a Small Satellite Mission to Explore the Space Weather Effects in Leo

  • Isai Fajardo,
  • Aleksander A. Lidtke,
  • Sidi Ahmed Bendoukha,
  • Jesus Gonzalez-Llorente,
  • Rafael Rodríguez,
  • Rigoberto Morales,
  • Dmytro Faizullin,
  • Misuzu Matsuoka,
  • Naoya Urakami,
  • Ryo Kawauchi,
  • Masayuki Miyazaki,
  • Naofumi Yamagata,
  • Ken Hatanaka,
  • Farhan Abdullah,
  • Juan J. Rojas,
  • Mohamed Elhady Keshk,
  • Kiruki Cosmas,
  • Tuguldur Ulambayar,
  • Premkumar Saganti,
  • Doug Holland,
  • Tsvetan Dachev,
  • Sean Tuttle,
  • Roger Dudziak,
  • Kei-ichi Okuyama

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace6100108
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 10
p. 108

Abstract

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Ten-Koh is a 23.5 kg, low-cost satellite developed to conduct space environment effects research in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Ten-Koh was developed primarily by students of the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) and launched on 29 October 2018 on-board HII-A rocket F40, as a piggyback payload of JAXA’s Greenhouse gas Observing Satellite (GOSAT-2). The satellite carries a double Langmuir probe, CMOS-based particle detectors and a Liulin spectrometer as main payloads. This paper reviews the design of the mission, specifies the exact hardware used, and outlines the implementation and operation phases of the project. This work is intended as a reference that other aspiring satellite developers may use to increase their chances of success. Such a reference is expected to be particularly useful to other university teams, which will likely face the same challenges as the Ten-Koh team at Kyutech. Various on-orbit failures of the satellite are also discussed here in order to help avoid them in future small spacecraft. Applicability of small satellites to conduct space-weather research is also illustrated on the Ten-Koh example, which carried out simultaneous measurements with JAXA’s ARASE satellite.

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