PLUTO: the PayLoad Under Test Orbiter

Abstract

The PLUTO (PayLoad Under Test Orbiter) mission of the DLR Institute of Space Systems is a 6U CubeSat technology demonstration mission to be launched in 2024. The scope of this paper is to give an overview of the planned mission, the design decisions involved and the hardware to be validated. The hardware to be tested includes the Integrated Core Avionics (ICA), an ultra-wideband wireless camera and a deployable solar array. On PLUTO, ICA includes power handling, a software-defined radio and on-board computer, as well as advanced flight software. The ICA components are mounted in a CPCI Serial Space compatible backplane configuration enabling the use of the same components in CubeSats, SmallSats and standalone applications. Using experimental components for the primary bus functions poses a considerable risk of losing the mission without any data. To mitigate this risk a commercial OBC and UHF radio are included as bus components to provide data and reconfiguration capabilities in case the experimental components fail. Furthermore, the operational concept of PLUTO is tailored to provide maximum payload data while minimizing the risk of different payloads impeding each other.