Testing GIFTS for space

Conducted as part of ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! Test Opportunities programme, the campaign gave the students the opportunity to expose part of their mission hardware to the demanding conditions of launch and space, while gaining hands-on experience in a professional test environment.

The Gamma-ray Investigation of the Full Transient Sky (GIFTS) mission is an 8U CubeSat designed to detect gamma-ray bursts in low Earth orbit. These are among the most energetic events in the Universe and studying them can help scientists better understand extreme cosmic phenomena, while contributing to the wider field of multi-messenger astronomy. The GIFTS payload is based on six compact scintillator detectors arranged in two clusters around a central satellite bus. For this campaign, the team focused on one of these detector clusters as a representative element of the mission hardware.

The campaign centred on two essential types of environmental testing: vibration testing and thermal-vacuum (TVAC) testing.

Both are fundamental steps in preparing hardware for spaceflight. During launch, spacecraft are exposed to strong mechanical loads and intense shaking. Vibration testing recreates these conditions on the ground using a shaker system, allowing engineers to verify that structures, interfaces and electronics can withstand the stresses of liftoff.

Thermal-vacuum testing reproduces another key part of the space environment: the absence of air and the large temperature swings experienced when hardware moves between sunlight and shadow. In a TVAC chamber, the air is removed and the payload is subjected to controlled hot and cold cycles so that its behaviour can be checked under realistic operating conditions.

By taking one GIFTS detector cluster through both vibration and thermal-vacuum testing, the UCD team was able to assess how their payload behaves under representative launch and orbital conditions, while also carrying out functional checks to verify that the system remained healthy throughout the campaign.

Beyond the technical objective, the campaign also delivered strong educational value. ESA’s Test Opportunities programme is designed not only to support student hardware, but also to train teams in how a real test campaign is prepared and executed.

This practical exposure is one of the defining strengths of the programme. It allows university teams to connect classroom learning with the hardware engineering discipline required to develop space hardware, while also building confidence in their own systems and capabilities.

For GIFTS, this campaign marks an important milestone in the development of a mission with ambitious scientific goals. By completing vibration and thermal-vacuum testing on one of its detector clusters, the team has taken a significant step toward demonstrating the robustness of its payload and the maturity of its design.

With the campaign now completed, the next step for the GIFTS team will be to consolidate the results into a formal test report and present the outcomes during the final campaign presentation. This will allow the students to capture both the technical lessons learned and the experience gained during the campaign, while helping define the next steps in the mission’s development.

Test opportunities are available not only to satellite teams and teams that have previously participated in Fly Your Satellite! Opportunities, but also to others, such as sounding rocket teams and experiment teams such as those participating in the ESA Academy Experiments programme.

To learn more about the programme, click here.