Investigating the use of Commercial FPGAs in Two Case-Studies Cubesats: NanoSatC-BR1 and NanoSatC-BR2
Fernanda Lima Kastensmidt1, Jorge Tonfat1, Otavio Durão2, Nelson Schuch3
1Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) – Instituto de Informática – PGMICRO - Porto Alegre – RS – Brazil
fglima(at)inf.ufrgs.br
2Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - São José dos Campos, SP – Brazil
durao(at)dir.inpe.br
3Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - Santa Maria, RS – Brazil
njschuch(at)lacesm.ufsm.br
Abstract
The use of small satellites has increased substantially in the past years due to the reduced cost in development and launch and the flexibility offered by commercial components. NanoSatC-BR1 was the first Brazilian CubeSat project, developed at the Southern Regional Space Research Center (CRS/CCR/INPE-MCT) in collaboration with the Space Science Laboratory of the Federal University of Santa Maria (LACESM/CT - UFSM), Santa Maria, RS, Brazil. Part of the payload of the NanoSatC-BR1 was developed at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) with the objective to qualify the use of commercial FPGAs in space. The NanoSatC-BR1 was successfully launched on June 19st, 2014. Deployed into space in a rideshare mission by the Ukrainian DNEPR rocket, launched in the Yasni launch base, in south of Russia, the nanosatellite is fully operational since then. The main scientific goal is to monitor the Earth's magnetosphere by measuring the magnetic field, especially over the Brazilian territory, and to study the magnetic phenomena of the SAA (South Atlantic Anomaly).