NPSat1

NPSat1 [NPS]

NPSAT 1 (Naval Postgraduate School Satellite 1) is a low-cost, technology demonstration satellite hosting a number of experiments. Commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS)-based technology will be implemented with custom designs to offer a low-cost command and data handling (C&DH) subsystem building on commercial, desktop PC architecture and standards-based specifications.

In addition to an experimental C&DH subsystem, NPSAT1 will demonstrate the use of non-volatile ferroelectric RAM which is inherently radiation-tolerant and a lithium-ion battery, state-of-the-art technology that will be employed offering high energy density (Watt-hr/kg) for space applications.

Experiments on-board NPSAT1 include two Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) payloads: 

• The coherent electromagnetic radio tomography (CERTO) experiment and
• a Langmuir probe.

The CERTO experiment is a radio beacon which, in concert with ground station receivers, is used to measure total-electron-content (TEC) in the ionosphere. The Langmuir probe will augment CERTO data by providing on-orbit measurements.

The other experiments are of NPS origin.

• a novel design for a configurable, fault-tolerant spacecraft computer board,
• a COTS visible (wavelength) imager (VISIM),
• Solar Cell Measurement System (SMS),
• and some micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)-based rate sensors.

NPSAT1 was to be launched on the STP-1 mission with with ASTRO, NEXTSat/CSC, STPSat 1, CFESat, MidSTAR 1, FalconSat 3, but was delayed.

The SMS experiment was later moved to a dedicated cubesat mission, NPS-SCAT.