Portland State Aerospace Society
The Portland State Aerospace Society’s (PSAS) OreSat0 CubeSat, what the society says is Oregon’s first satellite, was deployed into low earth orbit in March 2021. CRP USA produced 3D printed components for the satellite, which has been successfully operating since it deployed.
Windform LX 3.0 was used for a turnstile antenna assembly, a star tracker camera lens and sensor assembly, and a battery assembly. CRP said that the assemblies all met the extreme vibration, outgassing and thermal performance requirements for low earth orbit.
Kilogram-class satellites, such as CubeSats, have functionality that formerly was only available in larger 100 to 1,000 kg class satellites according to CRP. The company says that 3D printing has helped to speed up this ‘revolution’, especially in universities. CubeSats have been launched by dozens of countries, universities and companies all around the world according to CRP. PSAS joined them with the OreSat0.
Before using selective laser sintering and Windform LX 3.0 for manufacturing subsystems on OreSat0, PSAS members trialled inexpensive FDM machines for prototyping according to PSAS members. After beginning to use SLS, the members said they couldn’t find parts that could stand the temperature extremes and that were vacuum rated to NASA and ESA outgassing standards until they discovered CRP Technology’s Windform LX 3.0.
Portland State Aerospace Society
The Portland State University Satellite Team: an interdisciplinary team of electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, computer science, math majors, and business students
PSAS members said: “It absolutely changed the way we design all parts of our satellite thanks to its characteristics: Windform LX 3.0 can be used in space; it has extremely good material properties; it is extremely easy to work with; it is far superior to other 3D printing materials, including the other FDM, SLA and SLS technologies that we’ve used.”
The Portland State Aerospace Society is an open source, interdisciplinary student aerospace project at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, with collaborators at most other Oregon universities. The society builds sophisticated amateur rockets, small liquid fuel rocket engines, and CubeSat nanosatellites.
Three missions are currently in the works at the society, all of which rely on the open source OreSat bus which is offered as a DIY platform for designing and building 1U through 3U CubeSats.
Portland State Aerospace Society
Z face of OreSat0, Oregon’s first satellite, at Spaceflight integration facilities in Kent, WA
“OreSat is our fully open source, modular, and reusable CubeSat system designed for educational teams,” said PSAS members. “OreSat uses a card cage system, which allows cards to be reused on different missions from 1U to 3U CubeSats. Cards include everything you would expect aboard a CubeSat: an on-board computer with multi-band radios, a battery pack, a star tracker, a GPS receiver, and the beginnings of an attitude determination and control system (ACDS). Solar modules are mounted on the outside of the aluminium frame, along with deployable omnidirectional antennas.”
According to PSAS, the SLS process used provided robust parts that can withstand environmental testing, including 14g of random vibration in all three axes and thermal vacuum cycling from -40 to +80°C. In addition to this, the society said that the Windform LX 3.0 provided critical outgassing compliance that was not available with other SLS processes.
