IRVINE02[1] is an educational 1U
CubeSat mission that gives high school students the experience of building, testing, and controlling a nano-satellite to develop interest and talent in the science and engineering fields. The mission features the second orbital
ion electrospray thruster developed by Accion Systems. Beyond the thruster, IRVINE02 utilizes
magnetorquers, deployable solar arrays, a GPS unit, and a miniaturized 1.4 Watt blue laser communication module to transmit pictures and data back to Earth. The magnetorquers and the laser are both developed by the
Ecuadorian Space Agency. This laser made IRVINE02 the first 1U cubesat to fly with an orbit-to-ground laser communications device. It transmits data and pictures to the Earth much faster than radio.[2]
IRVINE02 is the second CubeSat built by ICSP, the first being
IRVINE01.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).
CubeSats are smaller. Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).