The main objectives of this activity are the development of a generic flexible NanoSat platform suitable for IOD/IOV service and the preparation of a business plan for a sustainable IOD/IOV service concept based on the platform development. It should enable the setup of a customer oriented and cost effective full-service provider by establishing a self-standing and commercially successful IOD/IOV service.

Cost effective opportunities for in-orbit demonstration and verification (IOD/IOV) of non-space qualified products and components should be made more easily accessible for customers. This activity is aiming at the development of a customer oriented and cost effective IOD/IOV full service based on a generic NanoSat platform.

A flexible and modular NanoSat platform concept has been developed for IOD/IOV services based on award-winning modular satellite design approach (winner Airbus challenge 2017). It enables suitable IOD/IOV for any payload with CubeSats in range between 1U and 16U. A generic mission concept and strategy has been developed which will be applied to all upcoming IOD/IOV missions. The business plan concept has been developed with focus on the market & customer analysis and viability of the new business unit acting as an IOD/IOV full-service provider. With the advanced data management and software concept customers get fast and easy access to payload and platform data during AIT, ground testing and in-orbit activities. The proposed full-service offering all necessary tasks to realize an IOD/IOV mission includes the design of the mission and platform as well as the payload interface, AIT, launch procurement and preparation, in-orbit operations, and payload experiment preparation and execution.

The developed commercial application concept enables rapid, customer-oriented and cost-effective IOD/IOV services. It is based on a modular and flexible approach which drastically reduces overhead while providing the best performance platform tailored to payload demands. The offered full-service enables the customer to focus on the payload instead of the IOD/IOV mission.

The next step is to demonstrate the necessary capabilities to establish an independent and sustainable IOD/IOV service for customer payloads under commercial conditions. This includes setting up a business unit for IOD/IOV services as commercial application as well as demonstration and validation of the business model by the first IOD/IOV service mission (Q1 2022)