Tim Gust, Institute of Aerospace Technology Bremen
Antonio Garcia, Institute of Aerospace Technology Bremen
Benny Rievers, ZARM – Centre of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity
Patrik Sieverding, ZARM – Centre of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity
Alexander Koch, DLR Institute for Satellite Geodesy and Inertial Sensing
Matthias Weigelt, DLR Institute for Satellite Geodesy and Inertial Sensing
Tim Gust, VIBES Head of Program Strategy, Institute of Aerospace Technology Bremen
The satellite research program VIBES (Visionary Ingenuity Boosting European Spacecraft) was established in 2021 at the Institute of Aerospace Technology (IAT) of the City University of Applied Sciences Bremen. VIBES aims at bringing the consumer electronics revolution to space to improve the performance of spacecraft, and to connect education, research and industry to foster the development of talent and technologies for the future of spaceflight.
In 2022, work was begun on the program’s first spacecraft, VIBES Pioneer. VIBES Pioneer is a 3U CubeSat that carries a MEMS-based microvibration measurement system (MVMS). Using MVMS data, the images taken by a camera shall be optimized in post-processing, and the attitude control algorithms refined to reduce microvibrations during image acquisition. At the time of the conference, VIBES Pioneer will be in its qualification campaign with an expected launch in the second half of 2025. This launch opportunity was secured through the Microlauncher Payload Competition of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). DLR selected VIBES Pioneer in 2023 as one of eight European projects to fly on the second launch of Rocket Factory Augsburg’s RFA ONE.
While VIBES Pioneer is primarily serving as the “pioneer” for the VIBES program to learn how to develop, qualify, launch and operate spacecraft, the next two missions, VIBES Pathfinder and SENSORIS, are aiming at taking the consumer electronics revolution forward.
VIBES Pathfinder, a 12U CubeSat, builds on the VIBES Pioneer mission by transitioning from measurement to autonomy. It upgrades the MVMS to a versatile control system capable of optimizing image quality onboard. By processing and evaluating images in real time, the spacecraft autonomously determines whether these meet the mission requirements. This approach optimizes ground station utilization by transmitting only the valuable data, addressing the bandwidth constraints inherent in small satellite missions. Taking the results of the VIBES Pioneer mission into account, the spacecraft design of VIBES Pathfinder will evolve throughout 2025, with the key development phase to follow. The launch of VIBES Pathfinder is currently aimed for 2027 with a nominal mission duration of 12 months.
In addition to the two single spacecraft missions, the SENSORIS constellation is being developed by VIBES together with the ZARM – Centre of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity and the DLR Institute for Satellite Geodesy and Inertial Sensing. The name SENSORIS is derived from the Latin Mensoris, meaning The Surveyors. The purpose of the constellation is to measure the Earth’s gravity field using a NewSpace approach for faster, cheaper and more flexible data acquisition for research, security and resource management. It consists of sixteen 3U CubeSats which are an evolution of the VIBES Pioneer spacecraft. The size of the constellation is scalable; the more spacecraft make up SENSORIS, the faster and more frequently data can be provided. Using data fusion, the results will complement missions such as GRACE Follow-On, GRACE-C and NGGM, providing additional data to monitor Earth. Given that many of the key building blocks for the mission are already under development, a rapid implementation is foreseen, aiming for the launch of the first spacecraft in late 2026.
The paper at hand provides an update on the VIBES Pioneer mission and outlines the strategic roadmaps for VIBES Pathfinder and the SENSORIS constellation. Together, these missions support the aim of the VIBES research program of bringing the Consumer Electronics Revolution to space.