Tuomas Tikka’s research while affiliated with Aalto University and other places

The design, integration, testing, and launch of the first Finnish satellite Aalto-1 is briefly presented in this paper. Aalto-1, a three-unit CubeSat, launched into Sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 500 km, is operational since June 2017. It carries three experimental payloads: Aalto Spectral Imager (AaSI), Radiation Monitor (RADMON), and Electrostatic Plasma Brake (EPB). AaSI is a hyperspectral imager in visible and near-infrared (NIR) wavelength bands, RADMON is an energetic particle detector and EPB is a de-orbiting technology demonstration payload. The platform was designed to accommodate multiple payloads while ensuring sufficient data, power, radio, mechanical and electrical interfaces. The design strategy of platform and payload subsystems consists of in-house development and commercial subsystems. The CubeSat Assembly, Integration & Test (AIT) followed Flatsat -- Engineering-Qualification Model (EQM) -- Flight Model (FM) model philosophy for qualification and acceptance. The paper briefly describes the design approach of platform and payload subsystems, their integration and test campaigns, and spacecraft launch. The paper also describes the ground segment & services that were developed by the Aalto-1 team.

The design, integration, testing and launch of the first Finnish satellite Aalto-1 is briefly presented in this paper. Aalto-1, a three-unit CubeSat, launched into Sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 500 km, is operational since June 2017. It carries three experimental payloads: Aalto Spectral Imager(AaSI), Radiation Monitor (RADMON) and Electrostatic Plasma Brake (EPB). AaSI is a hyperspectral imager in visible and near-infrared (NIR) wavelength bands, RADMON is an energetic particle detector and EPB is a de-orbiting technology demonstration payload. The platform was designed to accommodate multiple payloads while ensuring sufficient data, power, radio, mechanical and electrical interfaces. The design strategy of platform and payload subsystems consists of in-house development and commercial subsystems. The CubeSat Assembly, Integration & Test (AIT) followed Flatsat-Engineering-Qualication Model (EQM)-Flight Model (FM) model philosophy for qualification and acceptance. The paper briefly describes the design approach of platform and payload subsystems, their integration and test campaigns and spacecraft launch. The paper also describes the ground segment & services that were developed by Aalto-1 team.

The in-orbit results and lessons learned of the first Finnish satellite Aalto-1 are briefly presented in this paper. Aalto-1, a three-unit CubeSat which was launched in June 2017, performed AaSI (Aalto Spectral Imager), Radiation Monitor (RADMON), and Electrostatic Plasma Brake (EPB) missions. The satellite partly fulfilled its mission objectives and allowed to either perform or attempt the experiments. Although attitude control was partially functional, AaSI and RADMON were able to acquire valuable measurements. EPB was successfully commissioned but the tether deployment was not successful.

The in-orbit results and lessons learned of the first Finnish satellite Aalto-1 are briefly presented in this paper. Aalto-1, a three-unit CubeSat which was launched in June 2017, performed Aalto Spectral Imager (AaSI), Radiation Monitor (RADMON) and Electrostatic Plasma Brake (EPB) missions. The satellite partly fulfilled its mission objectives and allowed to either perform or attempt the experiments. Although attitude control was partially functional, AaSI and RADMON were able to acquire valuable measurements. EPB was successfully commissioned but the tether deployment was not successful. In this paper, we present the intended mission, in-orbit experience in operating and troubleshooting the satellite, an overview of experiment results, as well as lessons learned that will be used in future missions.

Space technology has been an early adopter of additive manufacturing (AM) as a way of quickly producing relatively complex systems and components that would otherwise require expensive and custom design and production. Space as an environment and long-term survivability pose challenges to materials used in AM and these challenges need to be addressed. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is an effective coating method enabling conformal and precise coating of the complete AM print. This work analyses how an ALD coating of aluminium oxide on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polyamide PA 2200 plastic AM prints benefits and protects them. This was studied in the context of in-space propulsion fluidics, where propellant flow properties also matter. AM was performed with material extrusion and selective laser sintering methods that are commonly used. Tests were performed with a simple bang-bang controller test setup and a mass spectrometer, and the existence of the coating was confirmed with scanning electron microscope imaging.

In this paper we will describe briefly Finnish Aalto-1 CubeSat mission and summarize the mission results achieved during first five months of the mission. The Aalto-1 is the first nanosatellite built in Finland and launched by Finnish consortium. The satellite project started in 2010 as a Aalto University student project, supported by consortium of Universities and institutes. The satellite main mission is education and technology demonstration, as most of the subsystems and payloads are purpose made for this satellite and operated in space for the first time. Main payload of the satellite is a miniature spectral imager AaSI (Aalto-1 Spectral Imager) designed for Earth Observation by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The instrument is based on a Piezo-actuated tunable Fabry-Perot interferometer and is the first such instrument for EO in space. The secondary payload is a radiation monitor, RADMON, which can detect and identify incident particles and their corresponding total energy at 15-second time resolution. The payload is developed by the University of Turku and the University of Helsinki.[4] The third payload is an experimental e-sail technology based deorbiting device, called Plasma Brake, developed and constructed by Finnish Meteorological Institute. Additionally, the satellite has three axis attitude system, on board computer system, several sensor systems and two purpose built-communication systems, tested first time in space. The satellite was finalized and tested for launch inspring 2016 and it was launched to space on 23.6.2017 by Indian PSLV rocket. By now, the satellite has been in space for five months and has already delivered substantial amount of data about its subsystems and achieving many mission goals. The spectral imager AaSI is calibrated in orbit and it has delivered several test images. Also the RADMON instrument has been calibrated in orbit and it has operated over several weeks, providing electron and proton spectrum measurements for several solar storms in autumn 2017. The deorbiting experiment has not been initiated yet. The mission team works currently with attitude stabilization and data collection with two main instruments.

The European component of the joint ESA-NASA Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission has been redesigned from the original version called Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM), and is now called Hera. The main objectives of AIDA are twofold: (1) to perform an asteroid deflection test by means of a kinetic impactor under detailed study at NASA (called DART, for Double Asteroid Redirection Test); and (2) to investigate with Hera the changes in geophysical and dynamical properties of the target binary asteroid after the DART impact. This joint mission will allow extrapolating the results of the kinetic impact to other asteroids and therefore fully validate such asteroid deflection techniques. Hera leverages technology and payload pre-developments of the previous AIM, and focuses on key measurements to validate impact models such as the detailed characterisation of the impact crater. As such, AIDA will be the first documented deflection experiment and binary asteroid investigation. In particular, it will be the first mission to investigate a binary asteroid, and return new scientific knowledge with important implications for our understanding of asteroid formation and solar system history. Hera will investigate the smallest asteroid visited so far therefore providing a unique opportunity to shed light on the role cohesion and Van der Waals forces may play in the formation and resulting internal structure of such small bodies.

In this paper, we will describe the Finnish Aalto-1 CubeSat satellite mission, the satellite status and the first in-orbit observations. The Aalto-1 satellite is designed by students is built by a consortium of universities and institutes. It is the first Finnish nanosatellite project and also the first satellite registered to Finland. The mission has primary goals in education, technology demonstration and science. The mission has initiated several New Space companies and initiatives in Finland and brought the nation to the circle of space faring nations. The satellite platform was mainly developed by Aalto University students while the payloads were developed by consortium partners. The satellite was successfully launched in June 2017. By the end of July, all instruments on-board of the satellite were commissioned and first scientific measurements were performed with spectral camera and radiation measurement instrument. Also, data was collected about all other sensors and subsystems, such as solar cells with conductive cover, novel sun sensors and redundant Linux-based on-board computer.