New platform to help payloads get in orbit verification

For technologies to develop faster, and be available for missions sooner, cost effective opportunities for in-orbit demonstration and verification (IOD/IOV) need to become more easily accessible for customers. A new activity with GSTP and S4 Smart Small Satellite Systems, in Germany, has developed an IOD/IOV full service to do just that.

The activity developed a generic flexible NanoSat platform suitable for IOD/IOV service and prepared  a business plan for a sustainable IOD/IOV service concept using this platform.

It enables suitable IOD/IOV for any payload withCubeSats between 1U and 16U. A generic mission concept and strategy has been developed that will be applied to all upcoming IOD/IOV missions. The business plan concept has been developed with  focus on the market, customer analysis and viability of the new business, which together act as a full-service IOD/IOV provider. With the advanced data management and software concept, users will get fast and easy access to payload and platform data during ground testing and in-orbit activities. The proposal includes the design of the mission andplatform as well as the payload interface, launch procurement and preparation, in-orbit operations, and payload experiment preparation and execution.

The developed commercial application concept enables rapid, customer-oriented and cost-effective IOD/IOV services, while drastically reducing overhead to provide the best tailored  platform. The offered full-service enables the customer to focus on the payload instead of the IOD/IOV mission.

400013054 closed in January 2021.