NSP Expert Lab Solutions Shoot For The Stars With A Cleanroom For Ireland’s First Satellite
Back in 2018, NSP were presented with the incredible opportunity to take part in a very exciting project – the creation of Ireland’s first ever satellite! Eirsat–1 which stands for “Educational Irish Research Satellite”was a joint collaboration between the European Space Agency and UCD’s Space Science Group, and was commissioned to carry out three experiments in Earth’s Low Orbit as part of the educational “Fly Your Satellite!” Programme.
Ireland’s first satellite was designed, built and operated by a team of UCD Students, with the support of academic and professional staff.
NSP were approached by Sarah Walsh, Eirsat-1’s Assembly Integration and Testing Technician to provide a solution that could guarantee a highly clean environment in which her team could design, assemble and test the various components of the satellite, as well as the payload experiments and subsystems.
We were delighted to play a part in such an innovative undertaking, and in collaboration with our partners at Monmouth Scientific, our experienced team quickly identified the Modular Cleanroom as the best solution to meet the needs of Eirsat-1. The engineers would be assembling delicate technologies capable of withstanding the harsh environment of space, and required optimal conditions to carry out their work.
Our Modular Cleanroom unit included a 3 metre by 3 metre production area where the majority of the production process would take place, accessed via soft close sliding doors and lit with LED lighting for maximum visibility.
The top quality, highly adaptable system was assembled on site, and was constructed from an aluminium framework with polycarbonate window frames to let people have a peak!
Most importantly, the cleanroom included the CAM1000 Clean Air Module, ensuring a positive air pressure and ISO Class 8 clean environment within the production area. This was crucial to ensuring a clean – in which the satellite could be constructed.
It’s safe to conclude that the Eirsat team were extremely satisfied with the end product, and the service received from NSP as Sarah Walsh had this to say:
“NSP have excelled from the initial contact, to installation and were very facilitating in terms of the timeline we required for the project.
I was present throughout the install and was really impressed by the knowledge of the engineers who talked me through everything they were doing.
It has been a pleasure to work with NSP Laboratory Solutions. Everything went very smoothly, and I would certainly recommend them.”
EIRSAT – 1 was launched in December 2023 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and will continue to be operated and monitored by the team in Ireland until 2026, when it’s mission comes to a conclusion. We were delighted and honoured to play a part in such a prodigious undertaking, and look forward to working on similar undertakings in the future.
If you’d like more information on how NSP can help your business or organization, then get in touch with us today at info@nsp.ie or via our contact page.
Our Objectives
PhD student Sarah Walsh approached NSP Expert Lab Solutions in 2018. She and the rest of the EIRSAT team sought an extremely clean environment suitable for designing, assembling and testing the three payloads present on the 20cm X 10cm x 10cm satellite.
What We Did
For this project we used Monmouth’s 3m x 3m ISO Class 8 Aluminum Modular Cleanroom.
We found a modular cleanroom to be ideal for this project. Supplying enough space for all assembly and testing to be done while also keeping costs and construction time down.
The unit has a 9m² production area and is well lit with LED lighting. The doors are sliding doors with a soft closing feature.
The modular cleanroom is assembled on site and is highly adaptable, constructed of high-grade aluminum with durable polycarbonate windows.
As well as the cleanroom construction we added a CAM1000 Clean Air Module. This module ensures positive pressure and an ISO class 8 environment for the EIRSAT team to work in.
This unit features HEPA filters which filter the air as it enters the cleanroom (99.997% efficient at 0.3 microns). The unit then creates a positive pressure within the cleanroom.
In total this unit can handle an area of up to 1000m ³. Providing HEPA filtered air to the entire facility with 75 clean air changes an hour.
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