NewSpace Lab
Nanosat Lab UPC
The UPC Nanosatellite and Payload Laboratory (UPC NanoSat Lab), located in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (Campus Nord), is an initiative of the Department of Signal Theory and Communications and the Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSETB – TelecomBCN).
With the design and development of nanosatellite missions as its main activity, the lab is focused on the exploration of innovative small spacecraft system concepts and developing and integrating subsystems and payloads for Earth Observation. The lab’s industry-grade equipment allows for the testing and qualifying of nanosatellite systems in space conditions (up to 6U). In addition, two ad-hoc ground stations have been installed to operate the launched missions.
Infrastructure/equipment
Clean room
Integration and tests of Cubesats and nanosatellites: ISO 8 clean room of 26 m2 equipped with instrumentation and tools for the integration and tests of CubeSats and nanosatellites. ISO-7 certified. Monitoring and control of operations from an outside room. Electrical interface with external room including instrumentation, power supply, signal generators, prototypes and others. Digital buses including Ethernet and USB, among others. Standard power connectors.
Thermal and Vacuum Chamber (TVAC)
Thermal and Vacuum Chamber (TVAC) Trinos Vacuum Projects of 50 cm (diameter) by 52 cm (length), 250 litres of capacity. 10^-5 mbar at 25ºC, 10^-8 mbar at -196ºC. Temperature range from -196ºC to +300ºC. Heating system through three infrared lamps and cooling system with liquid nitrogen. TVAC is useful for thermal and pressure tests that emulate outdoor conditions, and is included inside the clean room.
Vibration table
Data Physics vibration table: armature diameter: 174.5 mm; maximum sinusoidal force: 7325 N; maximum random force: 5000 N; maximum acceleration: 120 g; vibrator mass: 640 kg; frequency: 5 Hz to 3 kHz. Accelerometers: 2x 10g 8640A10T, 3x 50g 8640A50T and 1x 500g 8702B500. Vibration table that emulates launch conditions for CubeSats, included inside the clean room.
Helmholtz coil
Helmholtz coils – Serviciencia SL: Dimensions: 1.42 m × 1.26 m × 1.31 m; air cushion platform surface: 0.125 m2; Magnetic field generated: 1.51 μT/A; Maximum intensity: 800 μT; maximum current: 4.0 A @ DC; orthogonality error: 0.2. Helmholtz coil for tests and calibration activities of various subsystems.
