L3 - Space Miniaturisation

Question 1

What are the two ways to reduce payloads?

Answer 1

Miniaturisation or High Level Integration

Question 2

What are the characteristics of highly integrated payloads?

Answer 2

• Smaller, lighter, less power; but not proportionally less performance.
• Reduced mission preparation time, smaller teams needed, more frequent and less expensive launches (piggyback possible).
• More Complex: Because you need to put the subsystems out of their usual “boxes” and integrate all of them together which means you will have coupled thermal & electric environment! There is a trade-off between miniaturization and complexity.

An integrated system will have multiple sensors instead of multiple instruments.