5 ms·

This is great, I've been curious about this for a while, thanks for offering to answer questions! > The solution some open source projects came up with was to

This is great, I've been curious about this for a while, thanks for offering to answer questions! > The solution some open source projects came up with was to just take components from Mouser and run their own radiation tests on it then choose the ones that fared good enough to be used in space. That way they can make satellite boards for way cheaper. Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation tests / shock tests or whatever for them to be accepted for launch? From what I've read researching this stuff, the sats themselves aren't necessarily difficult or expensive to build, but its because of this testing / component requirement that makes them expensive. E.g., see the first comment on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8TSiKHZbC8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8TSiKHZbC8 > I work in this industry and yes these things are seriously expensive but also the cost isn't necessarily due to the hardware being expensive. The cost comes from testing and verification. Most integrators and launch providers want detailed information concerning vibration testing, material certifications for outgassing, vacuum testing and burn in. A lot of the players in the sat industry can't really afford to mess this up so they want to make sure the one shot they do have works. All of this additional engineering and testing costs are what kills the affordability. Even if you can get away with doing this all yourself, either academically or otherwise, no launch provider is going to let you on a ride share without this work, which requires specific testing hardware and a lot of man hours... which coincidentally costs a lot of money.

jdiez17 4y ago
> Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation tests / shock tests or whatever for them to be accepted for launch? The launch provider usually doesn't care about radiation tests. For CubeSats they mostly only want to see vibration test reports. Now, you and your user(s) will want to make sure that the satellite will work for a certain time while in orbit. So you throw all the functional and environmental tests that you can reasonably perform at it. And indeed, that's where you spend a lot of money.
naavis 4y ago
> Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation tests / shock tests or whatever for them to be accepted for launch? I guess the launch provider doesn't care whether your satellite will actually work and survive in orbit. They just don't want it to break into pieces during launch and damage the rest of the payload. So they most likely just want vibration tests.
Ephil012 4y ago
Pretty much what the other commenters said. Nobody cares whether your cubesat lives or dies in orbit. However, the radiation tests done on these open source boards have been quite extensive and there are a bunch of cubesats in orbit with these boards right now. They haven’t died from radiation so it’s generally assumed it’s fine. Even NASA has a project using consumer hardware in orbit (KickSat-2). Anyhow, generally you only need to pass the “mechanical” tests like vibration, vacuum, outgassing, etc. A lot of people do radiation testing to ensure that their satellite won’t die in orbit, but as a whole these open source boards like PyCubed pass them enough where you can be sure you’ll get at least a decent amount of time out of it. If you’re curious about the testing procedure here is a paper one open source project published about it. It’s by no means a comprehensive paper on testing but it gives a general idea. https://roboticexplorationlab.org/papers/PyCubed-SmallSat.pdf https://roboticexplorationlab.org/papers/PyCubed-SmallSat.pd...
- ackbar03 4y ago
  Do you have any additional information on how vibration tests are conducted? If there are any industry standards/certificates or anything? What is the procedure you follow at isomer before passing off to launch? Thanks!

jdiez17 4y ago

> Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation tests / shock tests or whatever for them to be accepted for launch? The launch provider usually doesn't care about radiation tests. For CubeSats they mostly only want to see vibration test reports. Now, you and your user(s) will want to make sure that the satellite will work for a certain time while in orbit. So you throw all the functional and environmental tests that you can reasonably perform at it. And indeed, that's where you spend a lot of money.

naavis 4y ago

> Isn't there a requirement for all cube-sats to pass radiation tests / shock tests or whatever for them to be accepted for launch? I guess the launch provider doesn't care whether your satellite will actually work and survive in orbit. They just don't want it to break into pieces during launch and damage the rest of the payload. So they most likely just want vibration tests.

Ephil012 4y ago

Pretty much what the other commenters said. Nobody cares whether your cubesat lives or dies in orbit. However, the radiation tests done on these open source boards have been quite extensive and there are a bunch of cubesats in orbit with these boards right now. They haven’t died from radiation so it’s generally assumed it’s fine. Even NASA has a project using consumer hardware in orbit (KickSat-2). Anyhow, generally you only need to pass the “mechanical” tests like vibration, vacuum, outgassing, etc. A lot of people do radiation testing to ensure that their satellite won’t die in orbit, but as a whole these open source boards like PyCubed pass them enough where you can be sure you’ll get at least a decent amount of time out of it. If you’re curious about the testing procedure here is a paper one open source project published about it. It’s by no means a comprehensive paper on testing but it gives a general idea. https://roboticexplorationlab.org/papers/PyCubed-SmallSat.pdf https://roboticexplorationlab.org/papers/PyCubed-SmallSat.pd...

ackbar03 4y ago
Do you have any additional information on how vibration tests are conducted? If there are any industry standards/certificates or anything? What is the procedure you follow at isomer before passing off to launch? Thanks!