ɫƵ

ūDzԲ

Feature

Building a full-service space science centre

30 August 2021
The Space Institute – Te Pūnaha Ātea – has a vision: to become ɫƵ’s leading centre for building and operating small satellites.

If space is the final frontier,   is the technician on the ground getting ɫƵ there.

Taylor is a senior research fellow and spacecraft engineering lead at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of ɫƵ’s .  He calls himself a “jack of all trades” – if the trades in question have to do with space missions. A physicist and engineer, he has been part of designing, developing and deploying multiple satellites, payloads and spacecraft subsystems in the UK.

Since he came to ɫƵ in December 2020, Taylor has been working to set up the infrastructure necessary to fulfil the institute’s vision.

Image
Ben Taylor

Building and testing satellites

Taylor is working to set up three interrelated facilities where satellites will be built and tested.

The Fabrication and Assembly Facility, or FAF, doesn’t look like much yet but Taylor hasn’t been faffing about. He’s been doing the early process work of setting up a mechanical and electronics workshop where space hardware will be developed.

Taylor is also leading the setup of a clean room, where the actual satellites, payloads and subsystems – will be built “for real” without the contaminants that could ruin them.

 Finally, he’s working with Frank May, the National Satellite Test Facility lead, to install testing facilities, where the hardware can be subjected to conditions that mimic space.

“We’ll be able to simulate launch environments with the extreme vibration and shaking satellites experience at launch. We’ll also be able to simulate space environments using thermal vacuum chambers,” says Taylor.

“Satellites in low-Earth orbit pass in and out of Earth’s shadow, so they’re going through dramatic changes in temperature, from -30 degrees to +70 degrees, 15 times a day. We need to test space hardware at those extremes.”

The facilities are of a scale to offer services to other research centres and companies, with utility also beyond just the space sector, adds Taylor.

“We’ll be able to simulate launch environments with the extreme vibration and shaking satellites experience at launch. We’ll also be able to simulate space environments using thermal vacuum chambers.”

Ben Taylor

Why nanosatellites

When you picture a satellite, do you imagine a large machine with huge solar panel ‘wings’? Try again. Picture a small tissue box, one of those cube-shaped ones.

A one-unit (1U) nanosatellite is about the size of a small tissue box with a one-litre volume, though heavier, with a weight of about 1.3 kg. Three units of the same size stuck together are 3U, about the size of a loaf of bread. Te Pūnaha Ātea’s first mission is likely to be a 3U satellite, while future missions might be 6U or 12U. These sizes are big enough to put in some interesting components and get good image quality but small enough to be relatively quick and cheap to build and launch, says Taylor.

Nanosatellites, or CubeSats, can do a lot. They can observe the Earth, collecting data to monitor anything from deforestation to water quality. Groups of them, known as constellations, can provide telecommunications services or better imaging coverage.

“If you have a single satellite going around, you can revisit particular areas of the world every few days or so, but if you want to monitor things a bit more regularly, then more satellites allow you to do that,” says Taylor. “Smaller, cheaper satellites make these constellations possible.”

Why the University of ɫƵ

ɫƵ’s space sector is expanding rapidly. Its advantages include a time zone that allows satellites to be monitored 24/7 with international cooperation, the agility of a smaller bureaucracy, and sheer human ingenuity. Rocket Lab has emerged as a powerhouse in launching satellites, bringing many into space at a time before deploying them one by one. 

There is, however, a gap when it comes to designing and building satellites in ɫƵ, says Taylor. Filling that gap at the University of ɫƵ will be good for the future of the national space sector because it will allow students from the undergraduate to doctoral level to get invaluable hands-on experience in a field that provides rigorous training by its nature.

“One of the things about building satellites is, once they’re launched, you don’t get to go back and tinker with them,” says Taylor.

“One of the things about building satellites is, once they’re launched, you don’t get to go back and tinker with them. You need to make absolutely sure that whatever you’re flying is going to work even after you’ve had many G’s of vibrational force rattling around your sensitive bits of electronic hardware in every direction."
Ben Taylor

“You need to make absolutely sure that whatever you’re flying is going to work even after you’ve had many G’s of vibrational force rattling around your sensitive bits of electronic hardware in every direction and even after it has had prolonged exposure to the harsh space environment. There is the scope for software updates, though, as long as you’ve got a solid foundation. Increasingly, the software side is where a lot of the work is, so people from those disciplines are critical.”

The university could also play an important role in helping space start-ups – including university spinouts – get off the ground figuratively and literally. Part of that help could be in the form of an in-orbit demonstration programme.

Among the space technologies Taylor is working on is a carbon fibre boom that can emerge from a CubeSat once it’s in space. Two cameras on the end provide a 3D look at the satellite. 

“It’s like a selfie stick,” says Taylor. “You can look back at your spacecraft in orbit, so it’s a nice little bit of PR for your company. It might help you seek some investment if you can show people your hardware operating in space.”

The “selfie stick” also has engineering applications such as being able to look for degradation of the satellite’s elements in the “nasty environment” of space, he adds.

University of ɫƵ space missions

Taylor aims to get Te Pūnaha Ātea’s first space mission ready for launch by August or September 2022. The first mission will be primarily about setting up and demonstrating a process that works, he says. It will feature equipment for Earth imaging and the “space selfie stick” to document its success.

The mission will also feature another piece of technology Taylor has helped develop – a system that deploys a thin “sail” of about a square metre. Despite the thinness of the atmosphere, there is drag in space, so at the end of a satellite’s life, a drag sail can be deployed to more quickly pull it into the Earth’s atmosphere, where it burns up.

“We want to be tidy Kiwis,” says Taylor, whose colleagues include Guglielmo Aglietti, who is working on , and Roberto Armellin and Laura Pirovano, who are working on cataloguing space junk and controlling space traffic.

The first Te Pūnaha Ātea space mission is likely to be based on an externally developed platform but the plan is to quickly move towards building spacecraft “from scratch,” says Taylor.

“The first mission is about establishing the process. The second will fly our own electronics and platform systems as a payload. Beyond that, we should be in a position to move to doing everything in-house to meet ɫƵ’s needs on a national scale.”

Work to establish a  at Te Pūnaha Ātea is already well underway. Within about five years, the University of ɫƵ should be able to build and operate two to three new satellites a year, including some for commercial customers or partners. Down the line, it may be possible to do more if some are constellation satellites with very similar components.

“We’re never going to be an Airbus but I see a good niche for us as a small-scale development house doing innovative missions in line with our place within a university,” says Taylor. “By being well plugged in to the national space sector, we can be a touchstone for this kind of mission and add real value.

“The end-to-end mission delivery we can provide will be key. Once you hit a critical mass in terms of people and infrastructure, you can have a really thriving and productive space institute. That’s what we’re shooting for.”

Interested in connecting with space research at the University?