A low-cost Nanosatellite Approach: AISat-1 after 5 Years in Orbit

In this paper, we present the AISat-1 spacecraft, which is a 12 kg nano-satellite developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Bremen. Its primary purpose is the reception of AIS signals from a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with the help of a newly developed deployable helix antenna. The bus architecture follows a low-cost approach - making use of commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) components. The main challenge for the bus design was to reduce complexity as a baseline concept for achieving an adequate in-orbit lifetime with acceptable risk, requiring only a fraction of the overall costs of conventional satellite approaches. The AISat-1 is now 5 years in orbit and still operating. Thus, the challenges, the issues we experienced as well as the conclusions are presented in this paper.