Update on the status of the Educational Irish Research Satellite (EIRSAT-1)

Abstract

The Educational Irish Research Satellite, EIRSAT-1, is a 2U CubeSat being implemented by a student-led team at University College Dublin, as part of the 2nd round of the European Space Agency’s Fly Your Satellite! programme. In development since 2017, the mission has several scientific, technological and outreach goals. It will fly an in-house developed antenna deployment module, along with three custom payloads, which are integrated with commercial off-the-shelf subsystems. In preparation for the flight model, a full-system engineering qualification model of the spacecraft has undergone an extensive period of test campaigns, including full functional tests, a mission test, and environmental testing at the European Space Agency’s CubeSat Support Facility in Redu, Belgium. Beyond the technical, educational, and capacity-building goals of the mission, EIRSAT-1 aims to inspire wider study of STEM subjects, while highlighting the importance of multidisciplinary teams and creating greater awareness of space in everyday life. A wide range of outreach activities are being undertaken to realise these aims. This paper provides a status update on key aspects of the EIRSAT-1 project and the next steps towards launch

Design, development and testing of flight software for EIRSAT-1: a university-class CubeSat enabling astronomical research

“…EIRSAT-1’s main flight software was developed with an overarching aim of maximizing the likelihood of mission success given the project’s highly constrained resources and initial lack of expertise. The success of the approaches taken was demonstrated through a test campaign with an EQM of the spacecraft, in which the flight software largely performed as intended 69 . Further confidence in the software’s performance will be achieved via the FM test campaign.…”

“…The success of the approaches taken was demonstrated through a test campaign with an EQM of the spacecraft, in which the flight software largely performed as intended. 69 Further confidence in the software's performance will be achieved via the FM test campaign. Key lessons learned from the experience to date are given in the following.…”