TRISAT-R Spacecraft

Investigate and map ionizing radiation in MEO orbits using several different instruments.

Investigate and map ionizing radiation in MEO orbits using several different instruments for scientific purposes and to demonstrate and test AI algorithms using high performance COTS components and error mitigation techniques in higher radiation environment. The project is supported and coordinated with ESA and the Slovenian Ministry of Economy.

From educational outreach, TRISAT-R satellite mission will promote the use of software defined radio, where a number of outreach activities are being planned that will involve schools, radio amateur societies and media during the first mission of a nanosatellite reaching the MEO orbits. During normal operating conditions the spacecraft will constantly gather measurements of ionizing radiation from the on-board instruments and store them in on- board memory including their mapping information based on information from GNSS receiver.

We are very pleased to announce that the SkyLabs on-board computer with an embedded GNSS receiver provided for the TRISAT-R mission has successfully locked to the navigation signals at the planned altitude of approximately 6000 km in the Medium Earth orbit (MEO).

The nanosatellite TRISAT-R flying in MEO received its first in-orbit software update of the attitude determination and control algorithm to stabilize the spacecraft into a stable two-axis attitude control.

TRISAT-R continues to operate reliably, despite being exposed to intense radiation in mid-Earth orbit (MEO) for more than seven months.

As of May 2024, TRISAT-R proved to be a robust nanosatellite in a very challenging orbit. Up to this date no critical radiation-based anomaly was observed, and, thanks to the shielding strategy, also no component degradation was observed, with exception of the solar panels, which are expectedly slowly losing maximum power capabilities due to their exposure to a high radiation environment. As it seems, the solar panel degradation will determine the end of life for TRISAT-R, but according to current predictions, we anticipate at least one more year of operation. The avionics platform FDIR mechanism also performed nominally, and during the mission we were able to perform two full firmware upgrades and 3 patches. The presented mission showed the potential as self-sufficient 3U remote sensing probes in MEO orbit, paving the way for a next generations of power optimized sensing probes for multi-point data collection

Initially planned as 6U TRISAT-2, but plans have changed over 4 years. CubeSat Industry Day 2015.

• SOLAR PANELS - DHV

[1]

• ALPHA (ARCA)
• Astrobio Cubesat (ABCS)
• CELESTA
• GreenCube
• MTCube 2
• TRISAT-R