Assembly
Overview
The FASTRAC mission will require the assembly of two spacecraft, FASTRAC 1 and FASTRAC 2, with almost identical components except for the micro-discharge plasma thruster, inertial measurement unit and portions of the electrical power system. Other differences between the two spacecraft are due to a Planetary Systems Corporation Motorized LightBand (MLB) used to separate the two nanosatellites upon reaching orbit. As a result, one satellite must supply the necessary power to the separation system while the other does not have to. Differing geometries of the two MLB rings result in different areas available to solar cells. The figure below shows the two fully assembled nanosatellites.
