SpIRIT Spacecraft

Demonstrator cubesat carrying an X-ray detector and propulsion system.

Demonstrator cubesat carrying an X-ray detector provided by the Italian Space Agency and innovative Australian-made technologies including sophisticated on-board computers and radios, and our miniaturised electric propulsion system.

It will run a suite of powerful scientific instruments, cameras, guidance systems, communication antennae, on-board computers with artificial intelligence capabilities, and even its own electric propulsion thruster.

Seven identical X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers have been fully tested and calibrated at FBK, IAAT/EKUT and INAF facilities.

• Although very compact and lightweight (1U=10×10-10cm, 1.6kg) these miniaturized instruments are quite advanced: they cover the very broad 3-1000 keV energy range with a resolution of about 300eV in the X-dray band and 6% in the gamma-ray band. The total collecting area and field of view of each instrument is about 50cm2 and more than 3 steradiants respectively. The temporal resolution is better than half microsecond. The GAGG scintillator crystals are hosted in a stainless steel case, with tungsten shields on the bottom and on the sides to reduce the Cosmic X-ray background.
• The instruments will monitor the High Energy sky to catch and localize transients such as Gamma Ray Bursts and the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events like neutron star binary mergers.
• FM1-SpiRIT has been already integrated in the Payload Management System at University of Melbourne labs on March/April 2023. The PMS will be integrated in the S/C on May/June 2023.

All MSL payloads are operational! 2023-12-22.

• Successful initial verification of TheMIS. The TheMIS ICU passed functional testing and TheMIS was used to record temperatures across the payload suite.
• All the hardware designed and developed in house is operational in orbit!

Commissioning update: Cryocooler is up & running! 2024-01-12

• The SpIRIT team resumed payload commissioning activities at full capacity after a brief recharging break, and we are very pleased to report that a significant milestone has been achieved for the satellite Thermal Management Integrated System (TheMIS).
• TheMIS passed all detailed functional tests and now we can report in-orbit demonstration of the Stirling cycle cryocooler. The plot below shows temperatures versus time for the heat strap connected to the cold tip, as well as for the cooler body (hot end) and compressor.
• The cooler is clearly reducing the temperature of the instrument transferring the heat to the hot end, with quantitative behavior as expected given the test conditions. Our team is very proud to have achieved one of the first in-orbit operations of a Stirling cycle cooler on a CubeSat, all with in-house developed electrical and electronic control system.

Loris camera & AI system update: first light & first paper! 2024-04-16

• Commissioning activities on SpIRIT are progressing positively, with all University of Melbourne systems staying healthy after more than 135 days in space.

Neumann Drive® has successfully completed its first on-orbit tests aboard the SpIRIT nanosatellite! 2024 August.

To mark the end of the extensive commissioning of SpIRIT, the "selfie" camera arm was deployed after waiting patiently stowed under the thermal radiators. 

• THRUSTER - Neumann Space

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• EIRSAT-1
• ENSO
• Hayasat-1
• Lilium-1
• SpIRIT
• ALISIO
• BEESAT-14
• BEESAT-15
• LOGSATS
• MDQubeSat-2
• Unicorn-2L
• Unicorn-2M
• Unicorn-2N