Design of Tokyo Tech nano-satellite Cute-1.7+APD II and its operation

Cute-1.7+APD II is the 3rd satellite developed by the Laboratory for Space Systems at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Cute-1.7+APD II is the current successor to Cute-1.7+APD. This new satellite is based on its predecessor but has some modifications to increase its reliability and robustness against radiation effects, electrical power shortage and so on. The satellite was launched by an ISRO PSLV-C9 rocket on April 28, 2008 and has operated for more than 9 months. Throughout its operation, many missions such as attitude determination and control experiments, scientific observations, photographing and communication experiments have been conducted. In this paper an overview of the Cute-1.7 series and configurations, modifications and operation results of Cute-1.7+APD II are introduced.