Spin.Works

The uPGRADE mission aims at developing a satellite measurement system that makes financially attractive the continuous monitoring of Earth’s gravity field.

• After several years in design, development and testing, Spin.Works’ first camera, HS1, will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 in early March 2024, on board the AEROS nano satellite.

The uPGRADE mission (miniaturized Prototype for GRavity Recovery using Distributed Earth-orbiting satellites) aims at developing a small, light and low-cost satellite measurement system that makes financially attractive the continuous monitoring of Earth’s gravity field while addressing the issue of observing the fast mass transport processes associated with weather systems.

Previous publications have presented the mission goals and the design of the CubeSat, as well as the highly sensitive MEMS unit responsible for the measurement of the minute accelerations felt by the CubeSat; in this article, the authors present the final design, the integration process (both software and hardware), the performance tests carried to the highly sensitive MEMS unit and the qualification of the uPGRADE CubeSat and camera payload (a newly developed star tracker unit) for a rideshare launch in the near future.

HS1 is the first hyperspectral camera developed at Spin.Works, and is currently in orbit on board the AEROS satellite. With a ground resolution of 55m/pixel at 500km altitude, it can acquire images in 140 different colors in the VIS-NIR range (470-900nm) at a frame rate of up to 70fps.