DESIGN OF AN EXPERIMENTAL MICROSATELLITE TUUSAT-1B

摘要

This paper presents the design of a 30 kg class experimental microsatellite TUUSAT-1B by a group of professors and students from 5 universities in Taiwan. It was more than 10 years ago the Taiwan Universities-United Team (TUUT) devoted to the microsatellite development was organized by a small group of professors and students coming from several domestic universities. At the beginning, TUUT established the basic technologies required for microsatellite development using very limited resources of manpower and budget under the support of the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan. Then the National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan supported TUUT to develop and manufacture the Taiwan Universities-United Satellite No. 1A (TUUSAT-1A) from 2005 to 2007. It is the engineering model (EM) of an experimental microsatellite. Through the cooperation with NSPO, the team has built its very solid and mature technological capabilities in microsatellite development and manufacture. Therefore, NSPO intends to support TUUT the design and development of a flight model (FM) named TUUSAT-1B in the coming 3 years from 2010 to 2012. As an experimental microsatellite, there are 3 payloads, 4 instruments, and 5 verification missions. Thus it is also called a 3-4-5 experimental satellite (345ES). Although for many years, the members of TUUT have been changed due to temporal reasons. However, the core team members keep almost unchanged. Besides, the technological heritage of the whole team is well maintained. Currently there are 9 professors and 18 students from the following 5 universities: China University of Science and Technology, Tamkang University, Taiwan Ocean University, Formosa University, and Chiayi University. All team members have very high interest and enthusiasm in the microsatellite development and test.