Final Assembly Time Lapse

AUTHOR: ALEXANDER DOKNJAS

The final assembly of ORCASat flight and prototype is the process of taking all the satellite subsystems and components that have been designed, built, and rigorously tested by students and putting them together to form the final satellite that will go to space. The final assembly process can be completed in 1 - 2 days by one person (in this case Tristan), but it took many weeks of preparation to be able to do so. The satellite was partially assembled 3 different times to check the fit and perform more advanced integration/acceptance tests that could not be performed on FlatSat. Additionally, many “simple” components had to be manufactured as they are required for the final assembly such as cable harnesses. These took a extreme amount of time (on the order of weeks) to actually build as the space inside the satellite is so tight that each cable harness wire had to be measured and cut to the perfect size so there is no excess cable taking up too much space.

We recorded the final 17 hours of the assembly process and after 2 weeks of editing together the 800 GB of footage, we have made the final assembly time lapse. We have provided as much detail as possible while cutting a lot of the mundane and repetitive steps such as applying threadlocker/epoxy, power-on tests, fit checks, cleaning, and inspection. We hope this keeps it interesting and educational. If any future satellite builders watch our video and learn a thing or two, then its a success. We also have included a few interesting photos to look at.

Most of the satellites major electrical subsystems

Solar panels waiting for epoxy to cure

The lab looked like this for weeks during final assembly

Solar panels assembled and ready to go

Step 1: build the satellite structure

Levente checking the radio was integrated successfully

Its starting to look like satellite

Twins: ORCASat flight and prototype units

Tristan preparing the flight satellite for its photoshoot