KvarkenSat: Mission concept and technical overview of a 2U Swedish - Finnish CubeSat
- Paper ID
65518
- author
- company
Luleå University of Technology; ; University of Vaasa; VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
- country
Sweden
- year
2021
- abstract
Kvarken Space Eco is a project conducted by a consortium of Finnish and Swedish academic institutions aiming to enhance the economic activities of the Kvarken region shared by the two countries, by improving the regional competence in space technology. In this framework, the consortium is developing a first 2U CubeSat, namely KvarkenSat, with the goal of exhibiting the regional capabilities in satellite development via performing science and in-orbit demonstration of Finnish payloads. Since the main areas of interest are forestry and sea transportation, the CubeSat will integrate a multi-spectral camera for forest health and seawater quality analysis and an AIS receiver for sea vessel tracking. In addition, the spacecraft will perform the in-orbit demonstration of a miniature water-based resistojet thruster system. KvarkenSat's last payload will comprise a GNSS receiver that will extract raw data in order to conduct precise point positioning (PPP) algorithm research. This work is meant to present the mission concept, objectives and technical overview of the current design. The launch of KvarkenSat is planned for Q4 2022 from northern Sweden.