From TechnoSat to TUBIN: performance upgrade for the TUBiX20 microsatellite platform based on flight experience

Abstract

On July 14th, 2017, the 20 kg satellite TechnoSat was carried into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome as the first satellite based on Technische Universitat Berlin’s novel modular TUBiX20 microsatellite platform. Its mission is the in-orbit demonstration of the platform and seven additional payloads. The second mission based on TUBiX20 is TUBIN, which is scheduled for launch in 2020. The satellite carries two infrared imagers accompanied by a camera for the visible light spectrum and shall demonstrate wildfire detection from orbit. While the platform concept already proved itself successful during TechnoSat operations, its performance needs to be further enhanced for TUBIN to meet the requirements of its Earth observation payload. This paper describes the upgrade of the TUBiX20 platform according to the requirements of the TUBIN mission. Here, the focus is set on illustrating how the modular platform design allows scaling the performance while at the same time keeping the modifications to the flight-proven system at a minimum. Second, the paper gives insights into the results of the TechnoSat mission and outlines how the experience gained in orbit benefits the platform upgrade for TUBIN.