The lean satellite approach requires aggressive measures for cutting development time and resource utilization; therefore, the power system should be simple, with a low part count, high reliability, and good electrical performance. The fully-regulated bus direct energy transfer (FRDET) architecture is considered the most common solution for big satellites; however, it is rarely used in lean satellite designs because of its complexity and the lack of commercial off-the-shelf solutions. Based on this, a new implementation of the FRDET architecture was proposed, prototyped, and evaluated. The system was based on a bidirectional converter that charges and discharges the battery while maintaining the bus voltage regulation. The system was evaluated by comparing it with the prevailing architectures in the field, in terms of efficiency and average harvested solar power per orbit. The proposed system was superior in both aspects which made it more suitable for its application in lean satellite designs.

1U CubeSats often use the 430-MHz band for communication due to their size and power limitations, and half-wavelength dipole antennas are employed. A 430-MHz-band dipole antenna requires a deployable structure for a 1U CubeSat. However, a 1U CubeSat has a small volume margin for redundant systems, so the antenna deployment system can be a single point of failure. In this paper, the 1U CubeSat structure itself was used as an antenna. As a sub-mission of the BIRDS-4 project, three 1U CubeSats (GuaraniSat-1, Maya-2, and Tsuru) demonstrated this antenna structure. The results of the ground tests showed a maximum gain of −5.7 dBi with the flight model. These satellites were deployed from the International Space Station on 14 March 2021. Radio signals were alternately transmitted from the dipole antenna and the structure antenna onboard Tsuru for on-orbit demonstration on 15 December 2021, and the received signal strength on the ground was compared using RTL-SDR, SDR# and several codes. The ground station was able to receive both dipole and structure CW signals. The received power strength indicates that a gain of −8.1 dBi is being demonstrated with the structure antenna.

A flight-proven electrical bus system for the 1U CubeSat platform was designed in the BIRDS satellite program at the Kyushu Institute of Technology. The bus utilizes a backplane board as the mechanical and electrical interface between the subsystems and the payloads. The electrical routes on the backplane are configured by software using a complex programmable logic device (CPLD). It allows for reusability in multiple CubeSat projects while lowering costs and development time; as a result, resources can be directed toward developing the mission payloads. Lastly, it provides more time for integration and system-level verification, which are critical for a reliable and successful mission. The current trend of CubeSat launches is focused on 3U and 6U platforms due to their capability to accommodate multiple and complex payloads. Hence, a demonstration of the electrical bus system to adapt to larger platforms is necessary. This study demonstrates the configurable electrical interface board’s scalability in two cases: the capability to accommodate (1) multiple missions and (2) complex payload requirements. In the first case, a 3U-size configurable backplane prototype was designed to handle 13 mission payloads. Four CPLDs were used to manage the limited number of digital interfaces between the existing bus system and the mission payloads. The measured transmission delay was up to 20 ns, which is acceptable for simple serial communications such as UART and SPI. Furthermore, the measured energy consumption of the backplane per ISS orbit was only 28 mWh. Lastly, the designed backplane was proven to be highly reliable as no bit errors were detected throughout the functionality tests. In the second case, a configurable backplane was implemented in a 6U CubeSat with complex payload requirements compared to the 1U CubeSat platform. The CubeSat was deployed in ISS orbit, and the initial on-orbit results indicated that the designed backplane supported missions without issues.

CubeSats, which were developed at educational institutions, often exhibit low mission success rates because of their limited design and system engineering experience. To address this issue, this study proposes a mission assurance framework that integrates system complexity evaluation with component importance analysis using the design structure matrix. Within this framework, system configuration and dependencies among components visualized through design structure matrix (DSM) and complexity calculations, previously performed manually, are automated. In addition, functions and components are categorized according to mission success levels, enabling a quantitative assessment of each component’s contribution to overall mission success. This dual approach not only reduces system complexity but also improves the distribution of critical functions across components, thereby mitigating the risk of single-point failures and enhancing system robustness. The proposed method was validated through a case study involving the BIRDS bus developed at the Kyushu Institute of Technology. The results demonstrate that DSM-based system reconfiguration can reduce system complexity by more than 80% at the highest mission success level while improving the distribution of critical functions. This framework provides an effective tool for assessing design validity from multiple perspectives during the early development phase prior to the preliminary design review. This approach is expected to increase the reliability and mission success rates of student CubeSat projects.