Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) is currently preparing for the launch of the Buccaneer Main Mission (BMM) satellite, the successor to the Buccaneer Risk Mitigation Mission (BRMM). BMM hosts a high-frequency (HF) antenna and receiver to contribute to the calibration of the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN). Verification of the successful deployment and stability of the large HF antenna is critical to the success of the mission. A bespoke deployable optics payload has been developed by DSTG to fulfil the dual purpose of direct verification of the deployed state of the HF antenna and capturing images of the Earth through a rotatable, dual-surfaced mirror and a variable-focus liquid lens. The payload advances research at DSTG in several fields of space engineering, including deployable mechanisms, precision actuation devices, radiation-tolerant electronics, advanced metal polishing and optical metrology. This paper discusses the payload design, material selection, trade-offs considered for the deployable optics payload and preliminary test results.

We numerically investigate the interaction between a nanosatllite CubeSat and surrounding plasma. The present study aims to elucidate particular issues related to nanosatllite-plasma interaction which affects the on-board instruments by using particle-in-cell simulations. The numerical results of the present study demonstrate the importance of several key physical processes in nanosatellites-plasma interaction. In particular, it is shown that plasma flow, ion composition, and the geomagnetic field have a strong impact on the Langmuir probes.