Nanosatellites

20 I-5Mission Examples

Kelly Antonini Nicolò Carletti Kevin Cuevas Matteo Emanuelli Per Koch Laura León Pérez and Daniel Smith

GomSpace A/S, Aalborg, Denmark

20.1. Introduction

When it comes to details on missions, the best way to get them is from their primary source. Thus, it was decided in this book to provide mission details from a single source so as to avoid any misinterpretation. Therefore, this chapter presents practical examples of existing nanosatellite missions, highlighting the objectives of each of them. All the satellites and missions described are developed by GomSpace, a Danish space company established in 2007. GomSpace is a manufacturer and supplier of nanosatellite solutions for customers in the academic, governmental, and commercial markets [1].

GomSpace develops nanosatellites according to the CubeSat specification. This standard defines the size of the satellite to be of one or more 10 × 10 × 10 cm³ size cubes or units with each unit weighing up to 1.33 kg. The CubeSat specification has allowed spacecraft to be more standardized. This standardization along with the general low-mass when compared to old-space spacecraft has made nanosatellites attractive not only to academic but also to professional space agencies and commercial customers [2].

In recent years, new business solutions and technology miniaturization are pushing the boundaries of the payloads that can be hosted in nanosatellites. However, payload power demands are also increasing, which in turn ...