Article
Design, Implementation, and Operation of a Small
Satellite Mission to Explore the Space Weather Effects
in LEO
Isai Fajardo
1,
*
,†
, Aleksander A. Lidtke
1,†
, Sidi Ahmed Bendoukha
2
,
Jesus Gonzalez-Llorente
1
, Rafael Rodríguez
1
, Rigoberto Morales
1
, Dmytro Faizullin
1
,
Misuzu Matsuoka
1
, Naoya Urakami
1
, Ryo Kawauchi
1
, Masayuki Miyazaki
1
,
Naofumi Yamagata
1
, Ken Hatanaka
1
, Farhan Abdullah
1
, Juan J. Rojas
1
,
Mohamed Elhady Keshk
1
, Kiruki Cosmas
1
, Tuguldur Ulambayar
1
, Premkumar Saganti
3
,
Doug Holland
4
, Tsvetan Dachev
5
, Sean Tuttle
6
, Roger Dudziak
7
and Kei-ichi Okuyama
1
1
Department of Applied Science for Integrated Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology,
1-1 Sensui, Tobata, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 804-8550, Japan;
lidtke.aleksander-andrzej578@mail.kyutech.jp (A.A.L.); q595903g@mail.kyutech.jp (J.G.-L.);
rafael@es.ise.kyutech.ac.jp (R.R.); 2rrmorales@gmail.com (R.M.); faizullin.dmytro518@mail.kyutech.jp (D.F.);
matsuoka.misuzu635@mail.kyutech.jp (M.M.); urakami.naoya149@mail.kyutech.jp (N.U.);
kawauchi.ryo738@mail.kyutech.jp (R.K.); masayuki3424@gmail.com (M.M.);
o111048n@mail.kyutech.jp (N.Y.); hatanaka.ken141@mail.kyutech.jp (K.H.);
abdullah.farhan835@mail.kyutech.jp (F.A.); q595909h@mail.kyutech.jp (J.J.R.);
p595904e@mail.kyutech.jp (M.E.K.); kiruki.cosmas-raymond709@mail.kyutech.jp (K.C.);
ulambayar.tuguldur754@mail.kyutech.jp (T.U.); okuyama@ise.kyutech.ac.jp (K.-i.O.)
2
Satellite Development Center CDS, POS 50 ILOT T 12 BirEl Djir, Algerian Space Agency, Oran
31130, Algeria; sbendoukha@cds.asal.dz
3
Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX 77446, USA; pbsaganti@pvamu.edu
4
Holland-Space LLC, Houston, TX 77059, USA; sdholland777@yahoo.com
5
Space Research and Technology Institute-Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria;
tdachev@bas.bg
6
Sigma Space Systems, Canberra 2905, Australia; sigmaspacesystems@gmail.com
7
University of New South Wales, Canberra campus, School of Engineering and Information Technology,
Canberra 2600, Australia; roger.dudziak@student.adfa.edu.au
* Correspondence: q595902f@mail.kyutech.jp
† These authors contributed equally to this work.
Received: 14 August 2019; Accepted: 19 September 2019; Published: 27 September 2019
Abstract:
Ten-Koh is a 23.5 kg, low-cost satellite developed to conduct space environment effects
research in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Ten-Koh was developed primarily by students of the Kyushu
Institute of Technology (Kyutech) and launched on 29 October 2018 on-board HII-A rocket F40, as a
piggyback payload of JAXA’s Greenhouse gas Observing Satellite (GOSAT-2). The satellite carries a
double Langmuir probe, CMOS-based particle detectors and a Liulin spectrometer as main payloads.
This paper reviews the design of the mission, specifies the exact hardware used, and outlines the
implementation and operation phases of the project. This work is intended as a reference that other
aspiring satellite developers may use to increase their chances of success. Such a reference is expected
to be particularly useful to other university teams, which will likely face the same challenges as the
Ten-Koh team at Kyutech. Various on-orbit failures of the satellite are also discussed here in order to
help avoid them in future small spacecraft. Applicability of small satellites to conduct space-weather
research is also illustrated on the Ten-Koh example, which carried out simultaneous measurements
with JAXA’s ARASE satellite.
Aerospace 2019, 6, 108; doi:10.3390/aerospace6100108 www.mdpi.com/journal/aerospace
