Evaluation of the impact of Independent In-Space Testing of Payloads for Enhancing CubeSat Mission Reliability

Since the 1990s, Chile has conducted space activities primarily driven by the operational needs of its national defense sector. However, this focus on mission operations has left limited opportunities for science-driven initiatives. To address this gap, the University of Chile launched a strategic effort in 2011 to develop scientific space missions, capitalizing on the growing adoption of standardized satellites like CubeSats. Through its Space and Planetary Exploration Laboratory (SPEL - https://spel.cl/), the university has developed four CubeSat missions to advance this research agenda. These missions have been supported by the university itself, Chile’s Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). Since 2017, four CubeSats have been successfully launched under this program: the 1U CubeSat SUCHAI and the 3U CubeSats SUCHAI-2, SUCHAI-3, and PlantSat. While this approach has demonstrated great value, the success of each research mission hinges on two key factors: the successful operation of the scientific payload(s) and the satellite bus. This dual dependency effectively doubles the risk of mission failure. As a result, we are exploring the possibility of accessing services that would allow us to test payloads in space independently. We hypothesize that such services could accelerate payload development while CubeSat bus capabilities continue to improve in parallel. We propose utilizing a new biological CubeSat mission, based on the PlantSat mission, to evaluate our hypothesis. In this payload, several biological subjects are studied in space, including fully operational extremophile samples like in PlantSat. To sustain and monitor the samples in space, we are developing a series of components and instrumentation. We need to identify the most likely experiments that could be conducted in a CubeSat. For instance, biological experiments require identifying the best type of container for the samples, the best combination of constituents to guarantee the proper operation of the subjects and identify the evaluation methods to use. In addition, the riskier electromechanics components of the evaluation systems (instruments) are identified, developing experiments as well to evaluate their performance in the ISS experiments. Thus, different combinations (samples-containers-instruments) will be tested in the ISS. The ISS experiment will be returned to Earth for further analysis. The results obtained will serve to identify the best experiment (sample and system) to carry in the CubeSat mission. In this work we present the methods used to define the ISS experiment as a preliminary design stage of a biological CubeSat, paying attention to the considerations for the new scientific and/or commercial platforms that might replace the ISS. In addition, we evaluate the economic and risk impact of conducting first an ISS experiment with a focus on recommendations for developing countries and small institutions or companies.