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(a) Mechanical design concept of PArticle TElescope. (b) Schematic of the anticoincidence (AC) and main detector (D) stack of each telescope.
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Today, the near‐Earth space is facing a paradigm change as the number of new spacecraft is literally skyrocketing. Increasing numbers of small satellites threaten the sustainable use of space, as without removal, space debris will eventually make certain critical orbits unusable. A central factor affecting small spacecraft health and leading to deb...
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Today, the near-Earth space is facing a paradigm change as the number of new spacecraft is literally sky-rocketing. Increasing numbers of small satellites threaten the sustainable use of space, as without removal, space debris will eventually make certain critical orbits unusable. A central factor affecting small spacecraft health and leading to de...
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... Furthermore, the Finnish company ICEYE has been a pioneer in the miniaturizing of SAR and deploying it on microsatellites. These satellites have demonstrated their value not only for ice detection but also for a wide range of valuable applications [166][167][168]. ...
This research aims to contribute to the development of the Eco-LeanSat concept by focusing on a sustainable approach to satellite manufacturing and the repurposing of remaining satellite capabilities after failure. Despite satellites no longer being suitable for their original purposes, these remaining capabilities can find new applications. The study begins by identifying relevant innovative eco-design applications. Subsequently, it examines sustainability within the satellite lifecycle supply chain, categorizing it into four methods: (1) active debris removal, (2) transport logistics, (3) mission extension, and (4) repair and construction. Aligned with emerging trends in space activities, the study also considers future developments to maximize satellites’ potential to provide new services. Additionally, the research includes a description of a potential lean manufacturing process that encompasses logistic chains to support the development of a more sustainable space economy. Finally, the study concludes with a technological survey tracing the evolution of the development of the SmallSat and CubeSat platforms that identifies relevant innovative designs for a sustainable space environment.
... However, neither the ESTCube-1 nor Aalto-1 CDP tether deployed due to engineering difficulties in accommodating a vacuum-qualified piezoelectric motor, which is sensitive to launch vibrations [28,29]. Foresail-1 [30] and ESTCube-2 were launched in 2022 and 2023, respectively, with the second generation of CDP experiments-this time, the two-phase bipolar stepper motor, phySPACE 19 (from Phytron), is space-qualified [14]. However, the Foresail-1 communication link was lost, and ESTCube-2 did not deploy from the launch vehicle. ...
... To provide redundancy, two thrusters will be used in each direction by the Foresail-2 satellite. For the ESTCube lunar nanospacecraft concept, we propose preliminary E-sail payload and experiment operations, which are based on the previous designs of ESTCube-2 (see Figure 4), Foresail-1(p) and Foresail-2 [14,24,[27][28][29][30][31]46]. . The ESTCube-2 Coulomb drag propulsion payload design for low Earth orbit (top) and the E-sail tether with a grey hair for comparison (bottom). ...
The electric solar wind sail, or E-sail, is a propellantless interplanetary propulsion system concept. By deflecting solar wind particles off their original course, it can generate a propulsive effect with nothing more than an electric charge. The high-voltage charge is applied to one or multiple centrifugally deployed hair-thin tethers, around which an electrostatic sheath is created. Electron emitters are required to compensate for the electron current gathered by the tether. The electric sail can also be utilised in low Earth orbit, or LEO, when passing through the ionosphere, where it serves as a plasma brake for deorbiting—several missions have been dedicated to LEO demonstration. In this article, we propose the ESTCube-LuNa mission concept and the preliminary cubesat design to be launched into the Moon’s orbit, where the solar wind is uninterrupted, except for the lunar wake and when the Moon is in the Earth’s magnetosphere. This article introduces E-sail demonstration experiments and the preliminary payload design, along with E-sail thrust validation and environment characterisation methods, a cis-lunar cubesat platform solution and an early concept of operations. The proposed lunar nanospacecraft concept is designed without a deep space network, typically used for lunar and deep space operations. Instead, radio telescopes are being repurposed for communications and radio frequency ranging, and celestial optical navigation is developed for on-board orbit determination.
... To be demonstrated onboard the ESTCube-2 [7], the ionospheric plasma brake has the potential to be the safest propellantless LEO deorbiting solution. The ESTCube-1 and Aalto-1 satellites have attempted to demonstrate the ionospheric plasma brake in LEO, but the first-generation ionospheric plasma brake required several improvements [8,9] which have been implemented onboard the ESTCube-2 and Foresail-1 [10]. ...
... The technicalities of the IPB integration in the ESTCube-2 were presented by Dalbins et al. [18], and a detailed description, performance evaluation, and risk assessment has been published by Iakubivskyi et al. [7]. Our team collaborates with the Foresail-1p team in cross-validating in-orbit ionospheric plasma brake results [10]. Foresail-1p will launch a similar ionospheric plasma brake demonstration payload in 2023. ...
Nanosatellites have established their importance in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and it is common for student teams to build them for educational and technology demonstration purposes. The next challenge is the technology maturity for deep-space missions. The LEO serves as a relevant environment for maturing the spacecraft design. Here we present the ESTCube-2 mission, which will be launched onboard VEGA-C VV23. The satellite was developed as a technology demonstrator for the future deep-space mission by the Estonian Student Satellite Program. The ultimate vision of the program is to use the electric solar wind sail (E-sail) technology in an interplanetary environment to traverse the solar system using lightweight propulsion means. Additional experiments were added to demonstrate all necessary technologies to use the E-sail payload onboard ESTCube-3, the next nanospacecraft targeting the lunar orbit. The E-sail demonstration requires a high-angular velocity spin-up to deploy a tether, resulting in a need for a custom satellite bus. In addition, the satellite includes deep-space prototypes: deployable structures; compact avionics stack electronics (including side panels); star tracker; reaction wheels; and cold–gas propulsion. During the development, two additional payloads were added to the design of ESTCube-2, one for Earth observation of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and the other for corrosion testing in the space of thin-film materials. The ESTCube-2 satellite has been finished and tested in time for delivery to the launcher. Eventually, the project proved highly complex, making the team lower its ambitions and optimize the development of electronics, software, and mechanical structure. The ESTCube-2 team dealt with budgetary constraints, student management problems during a pandemic, and issues in the documentation approach. Beyond management techniques, the project required leadership that kept the team aware of the big picture and willing to finish a complex satellite platform. The paper discusses the ESTCube-2 design and its development, highlights the team’s main technical, management, and leadership issues, and presents suggestions for nanosatellite and nanospacecraft developers.
... In this regard, the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space (FORESAIL) developed the FORESAIL-1 satellite, a 3U-CubeSat launched in May 2022 [28]. One of the FORESAIL-1 mission objectives consists of the deployment of a 40 m-tether and in the implementation of a PB test at the end of the satellite operative life [29]. Moreover, the EstCube project, which was not stopped by the failure of EstCube-1 mission, has scheduled the launch of a new satellite (called EstCube-2) in 2023, with the aim of deploying a 300 m-tether and performing a Coulomb drag-based deorbiting from 700 km to 500 km of altitude [28,30]. ...
The presence of a number of space debris in low Earth orbits poses a serious threat for current spacecraft operations and future space missions. To mitigate this critical problem, international guidelines suggest that an artificial satellite should decay (or be transferred to a graveyard orbit) within a time interval of 25 years after the end of its operative life. To that end, in recent years deorbiting technologies are acquiring an increasing importance both in terms of academic research and industrial efforts. In this context, the plasma brake concept may represent a promising and fascinating innovation. The plasma brake is a propellantless device, whose working principle consists of generating an electrostatic Coulomb drag between the planet’s ionosphere ions and a charged tether deployed from a satellite in a low Earth orbit. This paper discusses an analytical method to approximate the deorbiting trajectory of a small satellite equipped with a plasma brake device. In particular, the proposed approach allows the deorbiting time to be estimated through an analytical equation as a function of the design characteristics of the plasma brake and of the satellite initial orbital elements.
... AuroraSat-1 is a 1.5U CubeSat equipped with two payloads: a water resistojet module [49] for attitude changes and orbital adjustments and a PB module for spacecraft de-orbiting at the end of the scientific mission. An even more recent mission that could serve as a technological demonstrator of PB technology is FORESAIL-1, the first satellite designed by the Finnish centre Of excellence in REsearch of SustAInabLe space (FORESAIL) [50]. The 3U CubeSat FORESAIL-1 was launched into a polar orbit at an altitude of 700 km on 25 May 2022. ...
The plasma brake is a propellantless device conceived for de-orbiting purposes. It consists of an electrically charged thin tether that generates a Coulomb drag by interacting with the ionosphere. In essence, a plasma brake may be used to decelerate an out-of-service satellite and to ensure its atmospheric re-entry within the time limits established by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee. Moreover, since it only needs a small amount of electric power to work properly, the plasma brake is one of the most cost-effective systems for space debris mitigation. This paper exploits a recent plasma brake acceleration model to construct an iterative algorithm for the rapid evaluation of the decay time of a plasma-braked CubeSat, which initially traced a circular low Earth orbit. The altitude loss at the end of each iterative step was calculated using the linearized Hill–Clohessy–Wiltshire equations. It showed that the proposed algorithm, which was validated by comparing the approximate solution with the results from numerically integrating the nonlinear equations of motion, reduced computational time by up to four orders of magnitude with negligible errors in CubeSat position.
... The Coulomb drag generated by the tether should decrease the spacecraft altitude from 700 km to 500 km in half a year. A further planned mission that could serve as technological demonstrator of the plasma brake technology is FORESAIL-1, the first satellite designed by the Finnish centre Of excellence in REsearch of SustAInabLe space (FORESAIL) [165]. The 3U-CubeSat FORESAIL-1 should be launched in a polar orbit at an altitude of 700 km. ...
The Electric Solar Wind Sail (E-sail) is an innovative propellantless propulsion system conceived by Pekka Janhunen in 2004 for use in interplanetary space. An E-sail consists of a network of electrically charged tethers maintained at a high voltage level by an electron emitter. The electrostatic field surrounding the E-sail extracts momentum from the incoming solar wind ions, thus giving rise to the generation of a continuous thrust. In a geocentric context, the same physical principle is also exploited by the plasma brake, a promising option for reducing the decay time of satellites in low Earth orbits after the end of their operational life. This paper discusses the scientific advances of both E-sail and plasma brake concepts from their first design to the current state of the art. A general description of the E-sail architecture is first presented with particular emphasis on the proposed tether deployment mechanisms and thermo-structural analyses that have been carried out over the recent years. The working principle of an E-sail is then illustrated and the evolution of the thrust and torque vector models is retraced to emphasize the subsequent refinements that these models have encountered. The dynamic behavior of an E-sail is also analyzed by illustrating the mathematical tools that have been proposed and developed for both orbital dynamics and attitude control. A particular effort is devoted to reviewing the numerous mission scenarios that have been studied to date. In fact, the extensive literature about E-sail-based mission scenarios demonstrates the versatility of such an innovative propulsion system in an interplanetary framework. Credit is given to the very recent studies on environmental uncertainties, which highlight the importance of using suitable control strategies for the compensation of solar wind fluctuations. Finally, the applications of the plasma brake are thoroughly reviewed.
... The Aalto-1 satellite is currently active in orbit as of June 2020, and the tether deployment has not been demonstrated yet. The upcoming missions ESTCube-2 (Iakubivskyi et al., in press) and FORESAIL-1 (Palmroth et al., 2019) are planning to deploy few-hundred-meter-long tethers. ...
... The initial task of the RU is to deploy the tether and keep it stretched during the entire mission. In previous missions, such as ESTCube-1 (Slavinskis et al., 2015;Lätt et al., 2014;Envall et al., 2014) and Aalto-1 (Khurshid et al., 2014), and upcoming missions, such as ESTCube-2 (Iakubivskyi et al., in press) and FORESAIL-1 (Palmroth et al., 2019), there was, and will be, an aluminium mass weighing a few grams at the end of the tether serving as a passive RU. In the scope of the MAT mission, the independent operation unit is required in order to control the spin plane and, therefore, to keep the intended trajectory; it also manages the spin rate in order to avoid the orbital Coriolis effect, which influences the spin rate dramatically while orbiting the Sun (Toivanen and Janhunen, 2012). ...
We present a detailed mechanical and thermal analysis of a stand-alone nanospacecraft that performs asteroid flybys in the main asteroid belt (2.75 AU) and one Earth flyby at the end of the mission to return the gathered data. A fleet of such nanospacecraft (<10 kg) has been proposed as part of the Multi-Asteroid Touring mission concept, a nearly propellantless mission where the electric solar wind sail (E-sail) is used for primary propulsion. The fleet makes flybys of thus far poorly characterised asteroid populations in the main belt and downlinks scientific data during the returning Earth flyby. The spacecraft size is close to a three-unit cubesat with a mass of less than 6 kg. The spacecraft is designed for a 3.2-year round trip. A 20-km-long E-sail tether is used. A remote unit is attached to the tether’s tip and stowed inside the spacecraft before the E-sail commissioning. The remote unit is slightly smaller than a one-unit cubesat with a mass of approximately 750 g. With an electrospray thruster, it provides angular momentum during tether deployment and spin-rate management while operating the E-sail. The selection of materials and configurations is optimised for thermal environment as well as to minimise the mass budget. This paper analyses the main spacecraft and remote-unit architectures along with deployment and operation strategies from a structural point of view, and thermal analysis for both bodies.
... The use of CubeSats is one plausible option to realize innovative technology demonstration of tether systems in space since they are developed and launched at a much lower cost than conventional satellites. The authors of this paper currently develop 3U CubeSat FORESAIL-1 to realize the world's first space demonstration of Coulomb drag propulsion [6], [7]. FORESAIL-1 will demonstrate the plasma brake for deorbiting in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). ...
... FORESAIL-1 is the first in the FORESAIL mission series developed by the Finnish Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Space [7]. The FORESAIL-1 layout is shown in Fig. 2. The satellite is planned to be launched into LEO in 2021. ...
... Operating principle of Coulomb drag propulsion. Source: Adapted from[7]. ...
... A number of new space start-ups were founded as an outcome of this project. The (former) Aalto satellites group members have started and joined a number of new missions, such as ICEYE SAR satellite constellation, Aalto-3, Reaktor Hello World, FORESAIL [69], and Comet Interceptor [70]. The Aalto-1 design has been beneficial in the space technology curriculum and a source of inspiration for new students in the space technology lab. ...
The design, integration, testing and launch of the first Finnish satellite Aalto-1 is briefly presented in this paper. Aalto-1, a three-unit CubeSat, launched into Sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 500 km, is operational since June 2017. It carries three experimental payloads: Aalto Spectral Imager(AaSI), Radiation Monitor (RADMON) and Electrostatic Plasma Brake (EPB). AaSI is a hyperspectral imager in visible and near-infrared (NIR) wavelength bands, RADMON is an energetic particle detector and EPB is a de-orbiting technology demonstration payload. The platform was designed to accommodate multiple payloads while ensuring sufficient data, power, radio, mechanical and electrical interfaces. The design strategy of platform and payload subsystems consists of in-house development and commercial subsystems. The CubeSat Assembly, Integration & Test (AIT) followed Flatsat-Engineering-Qualication Model (EQM)-Flight Model (FM) model philosophy for qualification and acceptance.
The paper briefly describes the design approach of platform and payload subsystems, their integration and test campaigns and spacecraft launch. The paper also describes the ground segment & services that were developed by Aalto-1 team.
... FORESAIL-1 is the first in the FORESAIL mission series developed by the Finnish Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Space [51]. The centre is led by the University of Helsinki, and the satellite platform is being developed by Aalto University. ...
This paper presents two technology experiments – the plasma brake for deorbiting and the electric solar wind sail for interplanetary propulsion – on board the ESTCube-2 and FORESAIL-1 satellites. Since both technologies employ the Coulomb interaction between a charged tether and a plasma flow, they are commonly referred to as Coulomb drag propulsion. The plasma brake operates in the ionosphere, where a negatively charged tether deorbits a satellite. The electric sail operates in the solar wind, where a positively charged tether propels a spacecraft, while an electron emitter removes trapped electrons. Both satellites will be launched in low Earth orbit carrying nearly identical Coulomb drag propulsion experiments, with the main difference being that ESTCube-2 has an electron emitter and it can operate in the positive mode. While solar-wind sailing is not possible in low Earth orbit, ESTCube-2 will space-qualify the components necessary for future electric sail experiments in its authentic environment. The plasma brake can be used on a range of satellite mass classes and orbits. On nanosatellites, the plasma brake is an enabler of deorbiting – a 300-m-long tether fits within half a cubesat unit, and, when charged with 1 kV, can deorbit a 4.5-kg satellite from between a 700- and 500-km altitude in approximately 9–13 months. This paper provides the design and detailed analysis of low-Earth-orbit experiments, as well as the overall mission design of ESTCube-2 and FORESAIL-1.
