SunSpace was established in 2000 as a spin-off from Stellenbosch University following the successful launch of SUNSAT by NASA with a Delta-II launch vehicle. During the past decade SunSpace has developed and delivered numerous satellite components, subsystems and two flight model satellite, now operational in space. This blog documents the mission of Sumbandila (funded by the DST), launched on a Soyuz-2.1b on 17 September 2009. SunSpace places a high premium on a strong partnership with the South African Government for supplying the ongoing satellite needs of our government.

12 October 2009

Effects of radiation

We have noticed that some of the SRAM devices in use on the satellite are sensitive to Single Event Effects (due to radiation). This typically manifests as increased current.

All our electronics are protected by latch-up circuitry, but some of the increases in currents observed are below the set thresholds of the built-in trip functionality of these circuits.

We have now implemented a further protection mechanism in software which necessitated code uploads to the main on-board computer, some of the power distribution units, as well as the attitude computer.

In parallel we continue to perform minor commissioning activities and regular health checks. We plan to resume commissioning of the attitude control systems this week.
Posted by Sunspace Administrator at 10/12/2009 02:57:00 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Current Keplerian Elements

Last Update: 1 Febr 2010
Element set: 404

Sumbandila
1 35870U 09049F   10032.48635300  .00000433  00000-0  21444-4 0  4040
2 35870 097.3525 084.8560 0011505 166.1189 300.7196 15.22856092 20818