MEPhI and Satellites: CubeSat 3U Nanosatellites

Main article: Space satellites of countries of the world

2023: Completion of the assembly of the Svyatobor-1 satellite based on OrbiCraft-Pro

Nano satellite Svyatobor-1 is assembled and ready to undergo pre-launch tests. Space the device was manufactured with the support Innovation Promotion Fund of the Space-Pi project of the Planet Duty Officer program, a large-scale federal project aimed at attracting schoolchildren and students to study space technologies and their use in various fields. The payload for it was developed by students of the Institute of Laser and Plasma Technologies (LaPlaza). NRNU MEPHI The company Sitronics announced this on January 11, 2023.

The nanosatellite was created on the OrbiCraft-Pro platform of SPUTPS (part of the Sitronics Group) and is designed to track forest fires and other natural disasters primarily in the Russian Federation. The device was equipped with a thermal imaging camera, which will quickly detect thermal anomalies on the surface of the Earth, as well as a color camera of the visible range - it will be used to shoot fires. In addition, the spacecraft has an updated VERA plasma engine, which was developed by MEPhI students. It will allow you to adjust and maintain the orbit of the satellite during its operation. The satellite is scheduled to enter orbit in the first half of 2023.

The task was to integrate the MEPhI payload into our nanosatellite platform and prepare the satellite for launch. This device will allow you to quickly detect fires and other thermal anomalies. Functional filling of the payload was carried out by undergraduate students of MEPhI. This is not the first project with the university, in August 2022, 2 spacecraft on the basis of our platform with experimental plasma engines VERA went into orbit, "said Vladislav Ivanenko, General Director of SPUTPS.

The CubeSat format OrbiCraft-Pro nanosatellite platform allows scientific teams to focus on developing payload devices and planning an experiment instead of designing a new spacecraft for each mission.

A distinctive feature of the work of our university has always been to attract students to solve really worthwhile, and not purely educational tasks, - said Igor Egorov, head of the plasma rocket engine laboratory at the LaPlaza Institute of NRNU MEPhI. - And cooperation with SPUTPS demonstrates an excellent example of such an approach - we even attracted schoolchildren to work out a number of elements of the satellite propulsion system. We create a data control and reception center on the territory of the university so that students, as well as schoolchildren from lyceums at MEPhI, can gain experience in controlling spacecraft, as well as experience in processing the data obtained from them. Svyatobor-1 will not be our last satellite: we have already begun working on the project of the next spacecraft.

2022

Development of the Svyatobor-1 satellite for tracking natural disasters

In the laboratory of plasma rocket engines of the LaPlaza Institute, NRNU MEPhI developed the Svyatobor-1 Nanosputnik, and is designed to track forest fires and other natural disasters within the framework of the Space- π project of the Planet Duty program, which combines space projects for students and schoolchildren. This was reported at the University of NRNU MEPhI on November 3, 2022.

Preliminary assembly of the satellite MEPhI Svyatobor-1

To fulfill its mission, the spacecraft will be equipped with a device thermovision camera that will quickly detect fires and other thermal anomalies on the surface of the planet, and a visible color camera - such a camera will allow shooting detected fires and other objects with a resolution of 15-17 meters per pixel (depending on the height of the orbit). The spacecraft will be equipped with a VERA plasma propulsion system (also developed at NRNU MEPhI), which will allow you to adjust and maintain the orbit satellite in time its operation, as well as reduce the orbit at the end of its life to accelerate the combustion of the nanosatellite in the atmosphere, thus reducing the storage problem. space debris

Prior testing of payload electronics compatibility with satellite platform electronics

NRNU MEPhI actively attracts students to work on projects within the framework of the "Planet Duty" program. The program involves undergraduate and graduate students of the LaPlaza Institute, as well as a student of the 11th grade of school No. 2083 Ulyana Frantsuzova, who conducts scientific work in the laboratory to optimize the magnetic system of the plasma motor.

On November 2, 2022, a satellite with a payload was tested at the Satellite company (part of the Sitronics Group). During testing, the onboard computer of the satellite platform easily connected to the payload cameras developed in the plasma rocket engine laboratory of the LaPlaza MEPhI Institute. Both visible and far infrared test personnel were obtained. After preliminary testing for electronic compatibility, the payload unit was installed inside the platform to check for mechanical compatibility. The assembly went without problems, the payload perfectly stood in the place intended for it. The already assembled satellite took photos without any problems.

After the test, the payload block returned to the laboratory. It is also necessary to configure the optics to obtain the most detailed images, as well as install an updated version of the plasma engine, on which the subsidiary of NRNU MEPhI, Laser Ai LLC, is working.

Start of assembly of CubeSat 3U nanosatellites with VERA plasma engine

On January 21, 2022, Sitronics announced that employees of the plasma engine laboratory of the LaPlaza Institute of NRNU MEPhI and the Satellites company, part of the Sitronics Group, began assembling a CubeSat 3U nanosatellite with a VERA (Volume-Effective Rocket-propulsion Assembly) pulsed plasma propulsion system.

Assembly of nanosatellites

CubeSat 3U (30x10x10 cm) nanosatellites can perform various tasks in space: remote sensing of the Earth (remote sensing), including operational detection of natural disasters, collection of data on the movement of sea and aircraft, support for the Internet of Things (IoT), providing communication with remote autonomous meteorological and oceanographic stations.

"Our joint plans are to assemble two experimental nanosatellites with a plasma installation for further flight tests. An important task of the engines is to dilute satellites launched by a single group at different points of orbit in order to increase the simultaneously controlled area. The development will allow faster development of domestic solutions and systems for the collection and transmission of space data, "- told the president of Sitronics Group Nikolai Pozhidaev.

Tests of the VERA propulsion system have been carried out in the plasma engine laboratory of the LaPlaza Institute since April 2021. Earlier, there were no compact engines for ultra-small vehicles on the Russian market, which allow satellites to take and maintain the necessary positions in the orbital plane. VERA is meeting this challenge and will give impetus to the development of low-cost satellite systems of the next generation.