Mission

Origin

Mission Name

Origin

Carrier Name

ION SCV001 Lucas

Launch Date

September 2020

Launch Site

Guyana Space Center

Launcher

Arianespace

Rocket

Vega

Mission Status

Completed

Satellites Onboard

Hosted Payloads

Mission Updates

6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

UPDATE 6

October 28th, 2020

The ORIGIN mission has successfully ended!

The 12th and last of Planet's SuperDoves has been deployed today at 10:38:46 UTC. This marks the successful ending of the deployment phase of the first ION mission and sets a new standard for the orbital transportation industry. It is the first time in the history of the space industry that a company is able to successfully validate in space its precision deployment technology.

UPDATE 5

October 22nd, 2020

Approaching the end of mission

As of today, the 10th SuperDove has been deployed bringing us one step closer to the end of the ORIGIN mission.

UPDATE 4

October 12th, 2020

Mid-mission

The sixth SuperDove has been deployed and we have thus moved past the mid-mission milestone of the ORIGIN mission.

UPDATE 3

October 7th, 2020

Deployment phase

The commercial phase of the mission has started.

Over the last few days, we have successfully deployed the first four Planet SuperDove satellites and, in each case, Planet has confirmed that communication has been established with its satellite.

All systems are nominal and the mission is proceeding at the expected pace.

UPDATE 2

September 8th, 2020

Health-check

We have managed to establish a bidirectional link with the satellite.

We have already stabilized the spacecraft’s attitude, neutralizing the tumbling imparted by the launch vehicle during separation. The attitude determination and control system (ADCS) is pointing towards the Sun and the batteries, already well-charged, are recharging as expected during illumination periods.

The most important thing – the payload – is nominal: all the SuperDoves spacecraft are onboard, and no failures have been detected by the onboard failure detection system.

In conclusion, the system so far appears nominal. We are currently analyzing the latest data dumps to identify possible anomalies that may have occurred while the satellite was out of the visibility window. Over the next visibility windows, we are going to run the diagnostics and proceed with commissioning.

UPDATE 1

September 3rd, 2020

Launch

At 3.51 CEST, we launched our first satellite carrier, ION SCV LUCAS, from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana atop an Arianespace Vega launcher.

The mission, named Origin, is the first commercial flight of ION Satellite Carrier, a small spacecraft deployer designed, manufactured, and operated by us. ION’s ability to perform orbital maneuvers, like change of altitude and true anomaly phasing, enables this first version of the Carrier to quickly release CubeSats and microsatellites into precise and independent orbital slots, allowing customers to start their missions sooner and in optimal operational conditions.

The first part of the Origin mission consists of the smart deployment of a flock of 12 small satellites into a 500km sun-synchronous orbit. Subsequently, we will perform some IOD/IOV of dedicated payloads, culminating in the demonstration mission of an onboard propulsive module that will be used commercially starting on the next mission scheduled in December this year.

Roadmap

PHASE 1 - Commissioning

As soon as ION SCV LUCAS reaches orbit, our spacecraft operations engineers establish a bidirectional communication channel. We then start the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), neutralizing the rotation imparted by the launch vehicle during separation, correcting the attitude, testing the satellite’s subsystems, and preparing for the next phases.

PHASE 2 - Commercial Phase, Orbital Transportation

Once concluded the commissioning phase, ION SCV LUCAS starts the commercial phase of the mission with the deployment of satellites into a 500km sun-synchronous orbit. The deployment strategy, called fast dispersion, enables an even distribution along the operational orbit within a fraction of the time allowed by traditional dispersion techniques.

PHASE 3 - Commercial IOD

After completing the deployment, ION SCV LUCAS performs in-orbit demonstration and validation (IOD/IOV) of commercial payloads integrated within the platform, including a green propulsion system developed by a third-party company.

PHASE 4 - Educational Program

The Origin mission includes an educational program in collaboration with an “Istituto Statale di Istruzione Superiore" (ISIS) in the Lombardy Region and Aviosonic. The program enables high-level students – who have been involved in the development of an amatorial ground station– to establish a communication channel with the satellite through a UHF transceiver that works in satellite amateur radio band (435 – 438 MHz). Once connected, the students will be able to downlink telemetry and execute a number of educational operations through telecommands.

PHASE 5 - Internal Experiments

Before the official end of the mission, our engineers perform additional testing of subsystems, maneuvers, and procedures in preparation for the upcoming Pulse and Wild Ride missions.

PHASE 6 - Decommissioning

At the end of the mission, the spacecraft is decommissioned in compliance with the Space Debris Mitigation guidelines. The pressure vessels are depleted from leftover fuel and oxidizer, the battery charging system is deactivated, and the batteries are completely discharged. The spacecraft, now inert, enters a decommissioning trajectory that will bring it to burn up upon atmospheric re-entry within a few years.

Educational Program Space Segment

Satellite name	ION-mk01 Lucas SCV-001
Mission Name	Origin
Norad ID	46274
COSPAR ID (International Designation)	2020-061C
Launch Date	2020-09-03 (Vega SSMS PoC Flight)
Launch site	French Guiana (FRGUI)
Type of mission	Amateur combined with Educational
Mission(s) and frequency band(s)	A portion of UHF band is intended to be used for telemetry reception from student with school-developed ground station (telecom course) + Data storage in student-dev database (computer science course)
Planned duration of each part of the mission	About six months
Requested frequency and function	Downlink: 437.515 MHz
Tuning range of transmitter and step increment	Range: 430 – 440 MHz, Step: 1MHz
EIRP	EIRP = 4 dBW
ITU emission designator	1K20 G1D
Common description of the emission, including modulation type and data rate	Phase modulation with residual carrier, PCM data, SP-L encoded. Data rate: 1.2 kbps, QPSK Modulation
Type of antenna, antenna gain and pattern	UHF Monopole antenna. Gain: 4 dBi when mounted on the spacecraft
Attitude stabilisation	The satellite uses a combined magnetorquer and reaction wheels stabilization system
Service Area	REGION 1
Requested frequency and function	Uplink: 437.515 MHz
Tuning range of receiver and step increment	Range: 430 – 440 MHz, step: 1MHz
ITU emission designator	1K20 G1D
Common description of the emission including modulation type AND data rate	Phase modulation with residual carrier, PCM data, SP-L encoded. Data rate: 1.2 kbps, QPSK Modulation
Noise temperature	230 K
Associated antenna gain and pattern	UHF Monopole antenna. Gain: 4 dBi when mounted on the spacecraft
Physical structure.	Antenna Monopole, Mass: 50g, Antenna rod length: 190mm
Power budget.	The satellite will be equipped with 2 redundant EPS modules. Each EPS has a battery pack which provide an energy capacity of about 120Wh. These batteries are re-charged by solar panels body mounted.
Positive space station transmitter control.	Transmission can be turned OFF by a dedicated telecommand. This telecommand is processed by on-board computers. OBC redundant reduces the possible of computer failure and increases reliability. In case of interference, space station transmitter shall be terminated in no more than a few hours.