MicroOrbiter-1 (MO-1) CubeSat
MicroOrbiter
1U LoRa IoT relay CubeSat co-developed with Kyushu Institute of Technology — passively controlled, deployed from ISS Kibo module in March 2024, store-and-forward sensor data relay.
Technical specifications
- Form factor
- 1U CubeSat (10 cm cube)
- Mass
- ~1 kg
- Orbit
- ~400 km, 51.6° inclination
- Frequencies
- 920 MHz and 399.975 MHz (LoRa)
- ADCS
- Passive magnetic (hysteresis dampers)
- Deployment
- J-SSOD from ISS Kibo module
- Launch date
- 22 March 2024 (JST)
About
MicroOrbiter-1 is a 1U (10 cm cube, ~1 kg) IoT nanosatellite developed jointly with Kyushu Institute of Technology, operating in a 400 km, 51.6° inclination orbit — the ISS orbital plane. The satellite uses LoRa modulation at 920 MHz (unlicensed band) and 399.975 MHz to receive uplinked data from low-power IoT ground sensors and retransmit it as a store-and-forward relay for applications including environmental monitoring, asset tracking, and emergency SOS beacons. Attitude is passively controlled via magnetic hysteresis dampers. The satellite launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 on 22 March 2024 (JST) and was deployed via JAXA’s J-SSOD deployer from the ISS Kibo module.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
