IAC-10-B4.6B.3 DESIGN STATUS OF THE DELFI-NEXT NANOSATELLITE PROJECT

Delfi-Next is the second project within the Delfi nanosatellite development program of Delft University of Technology. It will provide students hands-on experience, facilitate technology demonstration for innovative miniaturized space technology from the Dutch space sector and allow advancements in satellite bus performance compared to its predecessor Delfi-C3. This paper will describe the mission and provides insight in the design status and trade-offs of each bus subsystem at September 2010. A micropropulsion system from TNO, an in-orbit configurable radio from ISIS BV and amorphous silicon solar cells will be demonstrated onboard Delfi-Next. The electrical power subsystem consists of deployable solar panels, a central power management unit, a battery system and local power regulation units on each printed circuit board. The central power management unit uses redundant maximum power point trackers for each solar panel and distributes the acquired power to a standard system bus on a fixed single supply voltage of 12V, the battery system and a shunt for excessive power. The communication subsystem consists of two redundant radios transmitting a continuous 1.2-9.6 kbps signal on a 145 MHz carrier frequency, a high data rate S-band transmitter, a receiver and a set of deployable antennae in a turnstile configuration. The downlink is received by a global distributed ground station network consisting of severa