SSS Project Constellation
Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) has initiated the Student Small Satellite (SSS) project, which is aimed to train the students and faculties from Member States (MSs) of APSCO to study space technology and satellite engineering through practical design of satellites until the flight model is made, and meanwhile contribute to the development of space education systems in APSCO MSs. The ultimate goal of this project is not only to enable universities to undertake student satellite design and development, but also to impart space technologies through a satellite project as well as hands-on training. Therefore, one of the most important and special aspects of the project is training/education.
The SSS project involves designing, constructing and launching three student satellites, one micro-satellite named SSS-1 and two CubeSats named SSS-2A and SSS-2B. The SSS-1 is a 30kg micro-satellite with dimension of no more than 350mm × 350mm × 650 mm, and both the SSS-2A/2B are 4.0kg with 3U CubeSat structure design. The three satellites construct a constellation named as APSCO SSS system.
- SSS-1: led by Beihang University in China;
Iran and Pakistan teams support the development; - SSS-2A: led by Shanghai Jiaotong University in China;
Pakistan team supports the development; - SSS-2B: led by TUBITAK-UZAY in Turkey;
Thailand team supports the development.
Initialed: in the Third Council Meeting of APSCO in September 2010;
Approved: in the AOSCO council meeting as a basic activity in late 2015;
Kicked-off: Dec. 12-15, 2016 in Beijing;
Implementation: technical milestone meeting held, based on project schedule and implementation requirements;
Launch target: first half of 2020;
Project Activities
Technical Review Meeting
The First Meeting of APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 1-4 November, 2011 in Beijing, China
The Second Meeting of APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 27-29 January,2015 in Istanbul, Turkey
The Third Meeting of APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 19-21 May, 2015 in Shanghai, China
The Kick-off Meeting of APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 28-31 March, 2016 in Beijing, China
The Preliminary Requirement Review Meeting (PRR) of APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 23-26 May, 2017 in Beijing, China
The Preliminary Design Review Meeting (PDR) of APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 27 November-1 December, 2017 in Beijing, China
The First System Critical Design Review Meeting (System CDR) of APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 16-25 April, 2018 in Ankara, Turkey
The Critical Design Review Meeting (CDR) of APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 21-29 August, 2019 in Beijing, China
APSCO SSS-1 Project, Engineering Model (EM) Test: was held on 04-22 December, 2019 in Beijing, China
Progress Review Meeting on Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 17-19 November, 2020, Teleconference.
Brief Flight Readiness Review Meeting on APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 08-09 September, 2021, Teleconference.
Technical Meeting on APSCO Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project: was held on 25 October, 2021, Teleconference.
Technical Review Meeting for FRR documents of SSS-1 and SSS-2A satellites: was held on 30 May, 2022, Teleconference.
Third Meeting- 2015
PRR Meeting- 2017
PDR Meeting- 2017
First CDR Meeting-2018
CDR Meeting-2019
Technical Meeting on APSCO SSS Project-2021
Training and Education
This project aims at space technology and satellite engineering education and training through the whole process from the practical design, manufacturing, testing, assembly, integration of satellites to the final flight model and contributes to space education system of APSCO Member States. During Satellites’ in-orbit operation, the Member States’ university resources, like ground station application, would be tasted and united together for sharing.
The training/education of the SSS project contains short-term trainings and long-term trainings. It has planned to arrange 3 times of the short-team trainings that are Summer Camps of small satellite technologies in the 3 summers of year 2017, 2018 and 2019. From each member state of the APSCO, 4 students and one faculty member participates in summer camps.
Summer Camp
First Summer Camp: was held August 14-September 2, 2017 in Beihang University, Beijing, China. The training covered over 13 topics and was given to nearly 40 students from Member States of APSCO. The main goal of the training courses was to making the trainee familiar with the basic technology of small satellite, and establish the foundation for the project development in the future.
Second Summer Camp: was held July 23-August 10, 2018 in middle East Technology University, Ankara, Turkey. It would focus on unit/subsystem manufacturing and testing.
Third Summer Camp: was held in 2019 in Shanghai, China, with cooperation from Shanghai Jiatong University. it focus on satellite assembly, integration and testing segment.
First Summer Camp- 2017
Second Summer Camp – 2018
Third Summer Camp- 2019
Degree Eduaction
Two students from each Member States of APSCO joined the master Degree Program on micro-satellite technology at Beihang University for the year 2017 and 2018.