In January 2023, Dragonfly Aerospace launched EOS SAT-1, one of seven satellites in the world’s first agricultural-focused constellation. The 180 kg advanced Earth observation satellite is used as an observation unit for the agricultural industry. The satellite is able to monitor harvests, seasonal planning, application mapping, yield prediction, and soil moisture. This information is vital for helping growers to reduce both their financial losses and their carbon emissions.
However, agriculture is not the only industry that can benefit from the satellite data. EOS SAT-1’s detailed data is made possible by its dual high-resolution cameras, which provide exceptional resolution and rapid retargeting capabilities, enabling the data to be used in a wide variety of industries, from insurance and government initiatives to environmental conservation programmes, all industries that require precise, up-to-date information.
When the Stellenbosch-based Space Advisory Company faced financial instability, some of the employees were not ready to abandon the heritage and capability of South Africa’s space industry, and founded Dragonfly Aerospace at the start of 2020. Their mission was to create compact, high-performance imaging satellites and payloads designed for large imaging constellations that provide persistent views of the earth in a wide range of spectra. The goal was to produce up to 48 satellites per year that will enable unprecedented business intelligence, to help improve the lives of people around the world.
To reach their goal, Dragonfly needed to set up a 3000 m2 design and manufacturing facility with 1000 m2 of clean room area for microsatellite production. Creating a business of this nature at the onset of the COVID-19 lockdown was certainly no easy feat, and the newly fledged aerospace company credits one of its partners, TANDM, for its current successes.
Dragonfly’s vertical integrated approach ensures that they are able to maintain in-house control of all satellite subsystems, a crucial element in a time where global supply chain management is under pressure, and the ability to manage obsolescence of components is essential.
With optimisation of resources being a key component for Dragonfly, they called on TANDM to assist in creating and heavily expanding their environmental testing capabilities by providing a vibration test system that allowed them to perform in-house vibration and shock testing.
Jean-Pierre Serfontein, head of Mechanical Engineering at Dragonfly said that TANDM was chosen because of its quality solutions and exceptional reputation in the industry. The vibration test system that was supplied and installed by TANDM in September 2021 consists of a Brüel & Kjaer LDS V8900 electrodynamic shaker with hydrostatic-bearing slip table and head expander. Shaker control is achieved with the Crystal Instruments Spider 81, a premium vibration controller suited for Random, Sine and Resonance Search, Track & Dwell (RSTD), and Transient Time History Control (TTH)). The shaker is accompanied by a 32-channel HBM QuantumX data acquisition system and a variety of uniaxial and triaxial accelerometers, to measure the vibration response of the imaging satellites, sub-systems and payloads.
Dragonfly uses the vibration test system to simulate the nine-minute period that the imaging satellites and payloads experience in the launch environment for the purpose of qualification and acceptance testing. The satellites are released into a low Earth orbit (LEO), at a target altitude of 550 km and an orbital velocity of 28 600 km/h.
Serfontein says that the vibration test system solution has been instrumental in Dragonfly Aerospace reaching its initial goals, optimising its workflow and staying on course for delivery, with ongoing shaker maintenance and training. “Our facilities allow for the production of up to 48 satellites annually, of varying size up to a 600 kg class, enabling us to compete with the most advanced agile aerospace companies in the world,” he concludes.
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