Functional testing, operations planning and failure analysis of CanX-1

CanX-1 (Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment) became the first Canadian picosatellite to be launched into space on June 30, 2003. The launch was the first in the CanX space program, the culmination of two years of work by graduate students and Space Flight Lab staff members at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies. CanX-1's mission objective was the demonstration of satellite technologies, many of which were designed in the Space Flight Lab. This thesis presents the functional testing and operations planning performed for CanX-1 before launch. After launch, no signal was acquired from CanX-1 and a failure analysis was performed. The failure analysis highlights untested launch conditions as plausible causes for failure. Based on experiences learned from CanX-1, an FPGA-based computer and battery charge regulator, for use in future CanX missions, are also presented.