Small satellites, especially pico or nano-class satellites, which can be developed in a very short period and at very low cost, are considered to provide good opportunities for technology demonstration in a space environment. Based on the success of the first pico-satellite XI-IV, which was intended to establish the basic technologies required for this class of satellites, Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory (ISSL) at the University of Tokyo developed its second pico-satellite XI-V with the mission to demonstrate new space technologies such as the verification of copper indium gallium di-selenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cells in space. The pico-satellite bus verified by XI-IV was used for this mission, so that the satellite was completed within as short a development period as one year. XI-V was launched on October 2005 and has been successfully conducting its missions. In this paper, following the introduction of the pico-satellite bus system and its demonstrated results on XI-IV, the details of the missions and on-orbit experimental results of XI-V are described.

View full abstract