Assessing COTS Sensor Suitability for CubeSat Missions in Near-Space Environments

Nanosatellite technology, particularly CubeSats 1U, has been promoted in recent years by the development of commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) components which, due to their reduced size and weight, represent lower cost and development time. However, the reliance on COTS increases the susceptibility of nanosatellites to failures due to extreme environmental conditions encountered in space, such as ionizing radiation, temperature, and albedo. Therefore, it is necessary to quantify the impact that environmental variables have on the functionality of COTS components like the BPW34 (Coarse Sun Sensor), which is used to determine the sun vector for attitude determination and control, to determine if its use is feasible for missions. This study focuses on quantitatively evaluating the impact of environmental conditions and the ionizing radiation dose rate (captured with the Geiger Counter SEN0463) on the performance of the BPW34 sun sensor through regression analysis and correlation matrices using empirical data collected up to an altitude of 17 [km] aboard a stratospheric balloon.