OPS-SAT, scheduled for launch in 2017, is a reconfigurable in-orbit laboratory suitable for performing potentially risky experiments in mission-control capabilities. It consists of a CubeSat (3U) satellite that is only 30cm high but which contains an experimental computer that is ten times more powerful than any current ESA spacecraft.
The GMV´s Poland subsidiary is responsible for On-board Software and the Software Validation Facility including the Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) algorithms, providing support to the Prime Contractor (Graz University of Technology, Austria) during all project phases.
This in-orbit laboratory will fulfil the availability of a testing platform for new procedures, techniques or systems, which could be too dangerous for the existing valuable satellites. The OPS-SAT solution provides a low-cost satellite that is rock-solid safe and robust even if there are any testing malfunctions. Over 100 companies and institutions from 17 European countries have registered experimental proposals to fly on OPS-SAT.
This first cubesat ESA mission ushers GMV in the expanding business of nanosatellites, providing its expertise in GNC/ADCS field to design a robust and safe ADCS with a limited and miniaturized set of actuators and sensors for such platforms.
