The Educational Irish Research Satellite, known as EIRSAT-1, is a student-led project to design, build, test and launch Ireland's first satellite. The on-board software for this mission is being developed using Bright Ascension's GenerationOne Flight Software Development Kit. This paper provides an overview of this kit and of EIRSAT-1's on-board software design. Drawing on the team's contrasting experience with writing entirely custom firmware for the mission's science payloads, this work discusses the impact of using a kit on the software development process. The challenges associated with the educational nature of this project are the focus of this discussion. The objective of this paper is to provide useful information for other CubeSat teams assessing software development options.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-wireless networks represent a promising solution to expand the reach of mobile connectivity beyond current boundaries. When Distributed Units (DUs) are deployed on the UAV, the high rate requirement on the wireless Fronthaul (FH) link between the UAV-DU and the terrestrial network poses a major challenge. To address the capacity demand of the FH network, we investigate the outage probability at millimeter Wave (mmWave) and sub-6 GHz frequency for different blockage environments and UAV heights. Utilizing a stochastic geometry framework, we first derive analytical approximate expressions for the outage probability of the FH link and we observe generally a good agreement with the simulation results for different UAV heights. In addition, numerical results for different urban densities show that the FH outage probability is minimized choosing an optimal UAV-DU altitude. We further analyze the impact of the antenna gain for two candidate mmWave frequencies on the FH link. High mmWave bands need sharp directional beamforming and large transmit bandwidth to outperform low mmWave bands in term of rate outage. Finally, our results show the impact on the outage probability of the FH overhead, that scales with the number of antenna elements, for different protocol splits.
The Educational Irish Research Satellite (EIRSAT-1) is a 2U CubeSat developed at University College Dublin. The project aims to build, test, launch, and operate Ireland’s first satellite and to perform in-orbit demonstrations of three novel payloads developed in-house. To reduce risk within the mission, the project employs a prototype model philosophy in which two models of the spacecraft exist: an engineering qualification model (EQM) and a flight model (FM). This paper presents the verification approach of the functional tests implemented for the EIRSAT-1 project. The activities of the FlatSat and system level full functional tests of the EQM are presented and the results obtained during the test campaigns are discussed. Four test anomalies were encountered during the full functional test campaign resulting in two minor redesigns, and subsequent reassembly, of the CubeSat. The functional test campaigns highlighted the importance of FlatSat level testing of CubeSats to ensure compatibility of all subsystems prior to assembly and of thorough documentation to diagnose any unexpected behaviour of the hardware efficiently. The functional verification of the EQM proved that the system conformed to its design, verifying 57 mission requirements, and is a crucial step towards the development of the EIRSAT-1 FM.
Satellite communication (SatCom) systems operations centers currently require high human intervention, which leads to increased operational expenditure (OPEX) and implicit latency in human action that causes degradation in the quality of service (QoS). Consequently, new SatCom systems leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to provide higher levels of autonomy and control. Onboard processing for advanced AI/ML algorithms, especially deep learning algorithms, requires an improvement of several magnitudes in computing power compared to what is available with legacy, radiation-tolerant, space-grade processors in space vehicles today. The next generation of onboard AI/ML space processors will likely include a diverse landscape of heterogeneous systems. This manuscript identifies the key requirements for onboard AI/ML processing, defines a reference architecture, evaluates different use case scenarios, and assesses the hardware landscape for current and next-generation space AI processors.
The Educational Irish Research Satellite, EIRSAT-1, is a project developed by students at University College Dublin that aims to design, build, and launch Ireland's first satellite. EIRSAT-1 is a 2U CubeSat incorporating three novel payloads; GMOD, a gamma-ray detector, EMOD, a thermal coating management experiment, and WBC, a novel attitude control algorithm. The EIRSAT-1 project is carried out with the support of the Education Office of the European Space Agency, under the educational Fly your Satellite! programme. The Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) plan for EIRSAT-1 is central to the philosophyand the development of the spacecraft. The model philosophy employed for the project is known as the 'prototype' approach in which two models of the spacecraft are assembled; an Engineering Qualification Model (EQM) and a Flight Model (FM). The payloads, GMOD and EMOD, and the Antenna Deployment Module (ADM) platform element warrant a Development Model (DM) in addition to an EQM and a FM, as they have been designed and developed inhouse. The engineering qualification model serves as both a FlatSat for electrical integration testing and as a representative model for testing of software code, patching and operational decisions during the active mission. The EQM is tested to qualification levels and durations during the environmental test campaign. The flight model contains the flight versions of the payloads, ADM platform element and the procured hardware elements. It undergoes acceptance level testing and it is the final spacecraft to be delivered to ESA for flight. After successful completion of the Critical Design Review (CDR) and Ambient Test Readiness Review (ATRR) phases of the project, the EQM of EIRSAT-1 will be assembled and integrated in University College Dublin. After assembly and integration of the EQM, the project will begin the ambient test campaign, in which the EQM undergoes ambient functional and mission testing. This work details the preparation and execution of the assembly, integration, and verification activities of EIRSAT-1 EQM.
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