High-Volume Spacecraft Manufacturing: Enabling Mega- Constellations & Providing Low-Cost Access to Space 14 th Reinventing Space Conference, London

Transcription

1 High-Volume Spacecraft Manufacturing: Enabling Mega- Constellations & Providing Low-Cost Access to Space 14 th Reinventing Space Conference, London 2016 Alasdair J. Gow, Spacecraft Sales Engineer

2 Outline Our Market Vision Who Are Clyde Space? Our Missions Achieving Success Conclusion

3 Our Market Vision

4 A Changing Market Demographic University and scientific projects no longer the primary consumers of CubeSat platforms and technologies Maturity and capability of modern CubeSats now offer opportunities for successful commercial applications Increasing number of CubeSats for commercial customers, and increasing number of constellations Source: SpaceWorks Nano/Microsatellite Market Forecast 2016

5 University and scientific projects no longer the primary consumers of CubeSat platforms and technologies Maturity and capability of modern CubeSats now offer opportunities for successful commercial applications Increasing number of CubeSats for commercial customers, and increasing number of constellations A Changing Market Demographic

6 A Positive Feedback Loop New and miniaturised technologies unlock new capabilities Commercial Customers: New capabilities enable novel applications, requiring constellations Volume orders demand mass manufacturing processes Civil & Academia: Low cost enables more technology demonstration missions Volume manufacturing drives down costs CubeSat Hardware Manufacturers: Volume manufacturing of reliable products

7 Pick Two? Reliability Traditional CubeSat Perception Traditional Space Perception Clyde Space (Previous) Clyde Space (Now) Low Cost Quick Schedule

8 Standard product pricing reduced by ~20% on average since same time last year Despite staff increase ~40% over same period Seeing Results

9 Number of units shipped per quarter tripled since introduction of new processes Top-level assemblies: composed of 1.99 individual subsystem units on average Seeing Results

10 Who Are Clyde Space

11 Introduction to Clyde Space One of the UK s leading space companies: Prime contractor UKube-1 Space Leadership Council IPSP Projects Award winning ISO 9001:2008 accredited Quality Management Global leader in CubeSats, with hardware on c40% of CubeSat missions >60 spacecraft in production; completion/launch in the next 18 months. Regarded as having more hardware in space than any other small satellite provider Broad space capability: Subsystems Platforms End-to-end missions Constellation design and implementation Strategic partners for complex payloads. Over 10 years experience in spacecraft subsystems World s leading supplier of small spacecraft power systems

12 Our People 80+ Staff From 8 nations 80% have a Masters 12% have a PhD All space Clyde Space is a professional organisation formed and staffed by professional engineers with significant background in spacecraft engineering. Unlike other CubeSat companies, our products have not been designed by students and then adapted for commercial use they are fully qualified professional subsystems. Our highly skilled engineers have considerable experience in bespoke product design and manufacture Experienced staff base from the wider space industry: SSTL, ESA, Thales, QinetiQ, Raytheon, Airbus

13 COTS Subsystems Hundreds of units supplied: world s most popular CubeSat Power System Components Power Systems: EPS, Batteries, Deployable Solar Panels Attitude Control: Processing units and algorithms, reaction wheels, thrusters On-Board Computers Structures Partners: Comms, software, sensors Systems available for CubeSats, Nanosatellites, and larger Small Satellites

14 Bespoke Subsystems PCDU Systems Clyde Space founded by former head of power systems at SSTL Strong heritage of power system development 2-3kW, 100A SA Input SmallGEO and 500W, 15A SmallSat power systems available Standardised designs with heritage, configurable to your mission Fully bespoke systems also available Solar Panels We have produced nearly 1000 solar panels over the past ten years Over 50 years of combined flight heritage No known failures Solar panel manufacturing process recently audited by ESA ahead of contract award Primarily use Spectrolab UTJ cells, but familiar with other cell types including Azur Space and Emcore. Al honeycomb cores, Al or carbon fibre skins Have also used hybrid PCB on Al approach, and PCB-only for CubeSats Batteries, ADCS, and other systems also available

15 CubeSat Platforms Currently producing 6 spacecraft per month Reference designs from 1U 12U allow for rapid development Customised platform designs tailored to mission requirements COTS subsystems = low cost Volume manufacturing approach enables cost-effective production of large-scale constellations First 3U platform UKube-1 featured SIX different payloads Clyde-Built Spacecraft continue to reside amongst the most advanced examples

16 Our Missions

17 UKube-1 1 st Satellite built in Scotland UK Space Agency s first CubeSat Four payloads: C3D Imager FUNcube educational comms system Janus random number generator TOPCAT ionosphere measurements UKube-1 was launched in July 2014 and has successfully completed its 14-month primary mission

18 PICASSO 3U CubeSat designed, integrated, tested, and operated by Clyde Space Remote and in-situ measurements of Earth s atmosphere ESA-grade science return VISION: miniaturised hyperspectral imager PICASSO will be launched towards the end of 2016

19 SeaHawk Pair of 3U CubeSats will perform ocean-colour monitoring (OCM) Multispectral HawkEye imager payload Designed by same team responsible for NASA s SeaWiFs imager: most successful OCM mission to date Funded by Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation Gordon, founder of Intel, authored Moore s Law The SeaHawk CubeSats will be launched in 2017 Moore s Law in space: smaller, faster, cheaper better performance

20 Outernet 1M contract awarded by UK Space Agency as part of International Partnerships in Space Programme Three 1U CubeSats will be built and launched initially, + one 3U with additional capabilities Eventual plan is for a total of 200 satellites: requires streamlined manufacturing capability Outernet will broadcast updates from the internet across the entire planet, including areas traditionally lacking, or with restricted access to, the internet. For free. Outernet will be launched towards the end of 2016

21 Outernet 1M contract awarded by UK Space Agency as part of International Partnerships in Space Programme Three 1U CubeSats will be built and launched initially, + one 3U with additional capabilities Eventual plan is for a total of 200 satellites: requires streamlined manufacturing capability Outernet will broadcast updates from the internet across the entire planet, including areas traditionally lacking, or with restricted access to, the internet. For free. Outernet will be launched towards the end of 2016

22 Catapult IOD Pilot Programme 4x 3U CubeSats for Satellite Applications Catapult 4 different payloads, 1 platform design Payloads sourced from industry & academia across the UK Funded by Satellite Applications Catapult, and continuing spirit of UKube-1

23 Achieving Success

24 Delivering Quality We have a high quality skills base within engineering and manufacturing ESA qualified assembly technicians and inspectors perform and inspect conventional and surfacemount solder assembly, repair and modification operations in conformance with ECSS-Q-ST-70-08, ECSS-Q-ST and ECSS- Q-ST ISO9001:2008 accredited Quality Management System that is based on ECSS guidelines Scalable approach to Quality: tailored implementation of ECSS for CubeSats, but inherent capability to work to full ECSS or NASA requirements when necessary.

25 Why Bother? Good Enough has been good enough for Cubesats in the past, so why bother? ISO9001 adds overhead! Commercial customers have a different approach to risk: more risk-tolerant than traditional space, less tolerant than traditional CubeSat approach! Commercial applications and services need to be reliable! Therefore the spacecraft providing them need to be, too!

26 Some of our Customers 70% of our business is repeat custom

27 Low Cost: Common Misconceptions Reduction in cost is achieved by cutting corners in: Analysis Testing and Verification Materials and components Cheaper components means lower reliability Lower cost means lower capability Missions will be compromised The quality will be lower Not true: cost is simply spread over the high number of projects!

28 Stage 1 Requirements Traditional Approach Capture the requirements of the specific mission Flow down requirements to subsystems Low Cost Approach Identify the area of the market that shows volume significant enough to support standardization Identify likely requirements and operating conditions Balance these requirements to identify the widest viable operational set Flow down requirements to subsystems

29 Stage 1 Requirements Actual Requirements may not be different in either methodology Mission life will be up to 5 years Orbit will be LEO Volume will be 100mm x 100mm x 300mm Impact for the system may be the same We will see SEE and TID of a known value (say 30kRad) We do not have the volume for full redundancy Who pays will be different We have been developing to these requirements for 10 years We can spread the cost over tens of missions Methods of mitigation may be different We are not aiming to eradicate failures, but detect and survive them This method lends itself to the COTs approach

30 Stage 2 Subsystem Design Traditional Approach Take the flowed requirements and carry out subsystem design Low Cost Approach Take the existing subsystems and identify gaps in capability vs requirements

31 Stage 2 Subsystem Design Actual Subsystem design process is almost identical Subsystem design already carried out in low cost approach, so timeline and cost is reduced Identification and bridging of gaps is lower cost Interfaces to other systems will be known and verified Integration phase carries lower risk Who pays will be different Again systems have been developed over 10 years We can spread the cost over hundreds of units

32 Stage 3 Platform Design Traditional Approach Design to requirements Manage all interfaces and subsystem developments Low Cost Approach Design to requirements using building blocks of existing subsystems Take the existing subsystems and integrate

33 Stage 3 Platform Design Platform design process is similar Platform design already carried out in low cost approach, so timeline and cost is reduced Identification and bridging of gaps is lower cost Common toolsets and system engineering building blocks Standard Test and Assembly Procedures already exist only need to be tailored to the mission Interfaces to other systems will be known and verified Integration phase carries lower risk Who pays will be different Again systems have been developed over 10 years We can spread the cost over dozens of units

34 Design for Manufacture, Design for Test Design for Manufacture Reducing the total number of parts Developing a modular design Use of standard components Design parts to be multifunctional Design parts for multi-use Design for ease of fabrication Avoid separate fasteners Minimize assembly directions Maximize compliance Minimize handling Design for Test Considering testability at early stage can reduce difficulty & cost, and improve quality Aim to automate testing where possible Scale testing appropriately: ECSSstyle SmallSat testing not required for CubeSats Clyde Space has invested heavily in DfM and DfT, allowing us to scale our manufacturing throughput to meet the demands of today s volume-focused market.

35 You can have it in any colour, as long as it s blue?! Modular Design Standard platforms using standard subsystems Multi-Use Parts 3G EPS range significantly condensed vs 2G Ease of Fabrication Several iterations of PCB colour to optimise for pickand-place manufacture

36 From Off-The-Shelf to Off-The-Shelf Off-The-Shelf designs previously built to order Only a small stock kept, if any All items previously handsoldered 3U EPS features ~1,000 components! All items previously manually tested Single EPS could take several days effort Large volumes of standard subsystems manufactured by pick-and-place machines Frees up skilled labour for more bespoke systems Automated test device reduces time and effort to test hardware by 10x!

37 From Off-The-Shelf to Off-The-Shelf 2G 1U 2G 2U 2G 1.5U 3G 1U 3G MB 2G PDM 2G 3U 2G Flex-41 2G Flex-42 3G BCR DB 2G Flex-60 2G Flex-42a

38 Bespoke? Focus on the Delta How much can we reuse? Minimises design effort: minimises cost Maximises heritage Example: 12V Microsatellite power system Adapted from standard 8V CubeSat products 2x on orbit, >20 more on order: enabling customer s constellation

39 Conclusion

40 Conclusion Nano/microsatellite market is becoming dominated by commercial constellations Drives demand for high volumes, and reliability Clyde Space has already invested heavily and adapted in anticipation Existing high quality now augmented with high volume capability DfM / DfT established for subsystems: now incorporating into platform development Low Cost doesn t mean Cheap! High volumes allow costs of more traditional, highquality approach to be amortised over many missions Standardisation key: product design targeted to general market requirements Whilst redundancy not generally possible on CubeSats, other risk mitigation efforts possible Failure Detection, Isolation, & Recovery (FDIR)

41 Any Questions? @ClydeSpace /ClydeSpace /ClydeSpace /Clyde-Space-Ltd #SPACEISAWESOME