1-02_-_Specs.docx

CIRCE CubeSat Procurement Requirements

Section 1: Basic CIRCE Mission Requirements

1. Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction Cubesat Experiment (CIRCE) is an NRL program to develop, build, test and fly a two-satellite constellation for ionospheric tomography. The mission requires two 6U CubeSats that will be inserted into the same orbital plane in a lead-trail configuration. The spacecraft will carry a complement of ionospheric instrumentation developed by the US and UK.

2. CIRCE is a fast pace disruptive technology mission in response to an operational need, hence there is an increased need for mission reliability because we only have one chance to do this mission correctly. Therefore, NRL requires the spacecraft vendor who will deliver two 6U CubeSats for CIRCE to have previous space flight CubeSat heritage of the design, build, integration, testing, initial operations and sustained mission operations.

3. Expected Orbit

3.1. Expected Inclination: mid to high (<45 deg)

3.2. Expected Altitude: circular, 600km +200/-50 km

4. Mission Life: min 1 year, goal 2+ yrs

5. Reliability: Class D

6. Payload Support

6.1. Payload SWaP: 4 U, 20-30W, 6 kg

6.2. Payloads: Tri-TIP (NRL), WISCER (UK)

6.3. Ops cadence: Tri-Tip Optical payload (100% duty cycle for power due to thermal stability required for optical filters), WISCER payload ~10% (campaign modes with ground station); spacecraft shall be capable of running all three payloads simultaneously.

7. Communications

7.1. Telemetry: >2 Mbps downlink, S Band (TBD), AES 256 Encryption

7.2. Demonstration capability for low latency data retrieval (15-300 MB over 6-120 seconds). Spacecraft vendor shall have previous flight heritage and flight operations experience with GlobalStar modem and flight software.

8. Spacecraft shall provide timing, position and attitude information.

8.1. Pointing: 3-axis stable, 1.0 deg control, 0.1 deg knowledge (3-sigma)

8.2. Position & Velocity: 10 m , 0.1 m/s

8.3. Timing accuracy: 10 ms

9. Deployables:

9.1. Tri-TIP folding mirrors

9.2. WISCER Antenna

Section 2: Hardware Deliverables, Testing, and Launch/Mission Support

10. Deliver two flight launch ready, fully integrated (Government furnished payloads to be provided to vendor) and flight qualified 6U CubeSat

11. Deliver two Flat-Sats and supporting GSE for payload testing.

12. System Integration and Testing

12.1. Integration of payloads into CubeSat

12.2. Fully Flight Qualified and Launch Ready by 3/31/2019

12.2.1. Environmental testing requirements baseline is NASA GEVS with expected update once Launch Vehicle (LV) is known.

12.2.1.1. Vibration

12.2.1.2. Thermal Vacuum Testing (TVAC)

12.2.1.3. Electromagnetic interference & compatibility (EMI/EMC)

12.2.2. Spacecraft level functional testing and verification (w/ payloads)

12.2.3. Vendor shall release all test data from both CIRCE satellites to NRL

12.3. Spacecraft vendor shall supply thermal model analysis and results for the fully integrated spacecraft.

13. Launch Support Services

13.1. Transportation of two 6U CIRCE CubeSats to LV

13.2. LV Integration Support (including 2 weeks of on-site engineering support)

13.3. Optional Deployment Canister (optional x1 and/or x2)

14. Mission Operations

14.1. Initial spacecraft operations i.e. commissioning and checkout for both units.

14.2. Optional sustained spacecraft operations and data dissemination (x1 and/or x2)

14.3. Satellites shall be capable of maintaining a baseline separation of 250-500 km via differential drag of the course of the mission. Increased area maneuvers shall be performed during day lit portions of the orbit whenever possible to avoid impacts to the Tri-TIP science collections.

14.4. Satellites must meet the 25-year post mission orbital decay requirement.