24 March 2025
Building and preparing a satellite to launch into space and survive for years in orbit is no small feat.
It takes hard work, determination, passion and a fair bit of skill; and for a team of Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) scientists and engineers, the dream has become a reality.
Buccaneer Main Mission is a fully operational Defence nanosatellite, also known as a CubeSat, which was recently launched into low Earth orbit.
A nanosatellite weighs between 1kg and 10kg.
It took a team of 15 DSTG scientists and engineers – supported by Australian industry and research organisations – five years to get the nanosatellite ready for its mission.
It will spend about 10 years in space, collecting high-frequency measurements to better understand radio-frequency propagation through the ionosphere.
The knowledge gained from Buccaneer Main Mission will inform Defence’s space-based capability into the future.
So, just how did this nanosatellite make it to the launch pad?
'We had to perform vibrational testing on the ground to simulate the shaking a spacecraft would experience on its way up. This made sure nothing would break or fall off the nanosatellite before it reached low Earth orbit.'
Spacecraft assembly integration and test lead, Paul Alvino, said: “The short answer is testing, testing and more testing.”
Ensuring a satellite can survive the launch and operate effectively in the harsh environment of space is one of the most crucial components of preparing for space flight.
Space systems engineer Lachlan Symonds said when a rocket lifted off, there were very intense vibrations from its engines, which can cause everything – including the nanosatellite – to shake quite violently.
“We had to perform vibrational testing on the ground to simulate the shaking a spacecraft would experience on its way up. This made sure nothing would break or fall off the nanosatellite before it reached low Earth orbit,” Mr Symonds said.
Once the spacecraft reaches a high enough altitude, the nanosatellite is ejected and begins to orbit – switching on 45 minutes later.
Buccaneer Main Mission orbits the Earth about 13 times a day, moving at 7.5km a second.
Senior space systems engineer Monique Hollick said during the nanosatellite’s daily journey, it experienced full sun exposure and complete darkness, with intense hot-to-cold temperature fluctuations.
“We tested how the nanosatellite will cope with rapid temperature changes, using a large vacuum chamber that can heat up and cool down to mimic the environment it would experience in space,” Ms Hollick said.
These mission-critical tests were performed at the National Space Test Facility at the Australian National University.
'We didn’t want Buccaneer Main Mission to just survive launch and a few orbits, we want it to stay up in space delivering outcomes for Defence as long as possible.'
The DSTG team also performed extra mission assurance tests to ensure the nanosatellite could deliver its mission for as long as possible.
Telemetry tracking and command lead Darin Roberts said the key part of this testing was based on the ‘test like you fly’ mantra.
“We subject the spacecraft to expected in-flight scenarios to understand, and possibly fix, everything that could happen before it performs the real task,” Mr Roberts said.
These tests included using the DSTG-developed and operated ground station in Adelaide to communicate with the nanosatellite over radio-frequency at long distances while it was performing its expected payload activities.
Collaboration across home-grown industry and research organisations was a key component to the mission assurance tests.
Communications testing in the REDARC Defence & Space’s anechoic chamber put the nanosatellite’s deployable structures to the test to see how its antennas would be affected by the harsh environment in space.
Inovor Technologies, providers of the spacecraft bus, which housed the nanosatellite, developed attitude control system testing facilities to test and improve the reliability of the spacecraft pointing in the right direction.
DSTG also conducted radiation testing to ensure key components would survive in space without degrading their performance.
These tests were conducted at both the heavy ion accelerator facility at the ANU, and the gamma technology research irradiator at Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.
This series of testing, adjusting and testing again ultimately resulted in the successful launch.
“We didn’t want Buccaneer Main Mission to just survive launch and a few orbits, we want it to stay up in space delivering outcomes for Defence as long as possible,” Mr Alvino said.
