Ex-Alta 2 flight hardwareIcarus is an open-source aluminium frame for a 3U CubeSat, designed by AlbertaSat at the University of Alberta.
albertasat-icarus Icarus is the structure of a 3U CubeSat, a small satellite made of three standard units stacked end to end. AlbertaSat, the University of Alberta's satellite team, designed it in-house for its Ex-Alta 2 satellite. It is published as an open-source design that follows the NanoRacks deployer standard.
The rails, ribs and rods are all 6061-T6 aluminium. Four rails run the length of the satellite and four ribs divide it into three units. Four rods carry the circuit boards. The solar panels fold out on hinges that began as an undergraduate engineering project.
An open-source CubeSat structure design from the University of Alberta's AlbertaSat team. It follows the NanoRacks deployer standard and is a worked example for teams designing their own 3U frame.
Each of the four rails is 340.5 mm long, plus or minus 0.1 mm, with a cross-section of at least 6 mm by 6 mm. The ribs sit about 100 mm apart. Each rod is threaded at both ends, and the circuit boards sit along it, separated by washers and spacers.
HeliCoil thread inserts were chosen to avoid cold welding, where touching metal surfaces fuse together. Loctite locks the threads. Two ribs carry ballast weights, each a machined metal shell around a dense core, held by M2.5 fasteners. A soft silicone pad separates one ballast from an electronics board to prevent vibration damage.
The solar panels fold out on aluminium hinges with springs, which the team machined in-house. The deployment mechanisms use 3D-printed PEEK, a high-performance plastic. The cells are Spectrolab XTJ-Prime gallium arsenide, stuck down with double-sided polyimide tape and electrically connected with silver epoxy.
The rails, ribs and rods of the frame.
The hinge bodies of the folding solar panels.
3D-printed parts in the deployment mechanisms.
The solar cells, made by Spectrolab.
The electrical connections between the solar cells and the board.
A soft pad that protects an electronics board from a ballast weight's vibration, and the adhesive on the tape under the solar cells.
AlbertaSat designed Icarus in-house for Ex-Alta 2, its 3U CubeSat, and says this cut the cost of construction. The solar panels on Ex-Alta 2 are a separate design called Hyperion, described in their own design document. Texas Instruments supplies the panels' temperature sensors, and Molex their connector. The frame meets the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer.
PSAS / Oregon State
Aluminium alloy 6061. Here: Rails; Rails (material statement) and more. There: 1U +X frame; Card wedge (card clamp) and more.
Aluminium. Here: Hinge bodies (deployable solar panels); Hinge bodies (statement of material). There: Backplane grounding to frame.
Gallium arsenide. Here: Solar cell type (paper). There: Solar cell (SpectraLabs XTE-SF, 2 per module); Solar cell technology.
Kapton HN polyimide film. Here: Lower-outgassing tape recommended for stricter projects. There: Polyimide thermofoil heater (Minco, 2 per card); Heater tape.
Spectrolab XTJ-Prime. Here: Solar cell (6 per panel, 6S1P). There: Solar cell on module (programme summary).
Blackwing Space
Aluminium alloy 6061. Here: Rails; Rails (material statement) and more. There: Sparrow 1U Chassis; Sparrow 1U XL Chassis and more.
Gallium arsenide. Here: Solar cell type (paper). There: Draft solar panel cells (triple-junction GaAs).
Polyetheretherketone. Here: Deployment-mechanism parts. There: Structure option: PEEK frame.
Blackwing Space
Aluminium alloy 6061. Here: Rails; Rails (material statement) and more. There: Kestrel 3U XL Chassis; Structure (all platforms table).
Gallium arsenide. Here: Solar cell type (paper). There: Draft solar panel cells (triple-junction GaAs).
Polyetheretherketone. Here: Deployment-mechanism parts. There: Structure option: PEEK frame.
Blackwing Space
Aluminium alloy 6061. Here: Rails; Rails (material statement) and more. There: Osprey 6U XL Chassis; Structure (all platforms table).
Gallium arsenide. Here: Solar cell type (paper). There: Draft solar panel cells (triple-junction GaAs).
Polyetheretherketone. Here: Deployment-mechanism parts. There: Structure option: PEEK frame.
EnduroSat
Aluminium alloy 6061. Here: Rails; Rails (material statement) and more. There: 3U structure; 6U structure and more.
Gallium arsenide. Here: Solar cell type (paper). There: Body-mounted solar panels (1U, 1.5U, 3U sizes) with triple-junction cells.
ESA
Aluminium. Here: Hinge bodies (deployable solar panels); Hinge bodies (statement of material). There: TPMU/DSLP housing.
Gallium arsenide. Here: Solar cell type (paper). There: Solar cells.
No design files, drawings or full list of parts for Icarus are published. The page does not say how the ribs and rods are finished, what the screws are made of, or which grades of Loctite and silicone are used. The ballast metals are not named either.
What is written above is built from these numbers and quotes. Each row links to the page it was taken from. Get all of it as JSON, or ask our MCP server.
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| External dimensions | 100 x 100 x 340.5 mm (NanoRacks standard) |
| Mass | 0.306 kg |
| Rail length | 340.50 mm +/- 0.1 mm |
| Rail minimum width | 6 mm on x and y faces |
| Rail minimum cross-section | 6 x 6 mm |
| Rail fillet radius | 0.5 mm +/- 0.1 mm |
| Rib spacing | about 100 mm |
| Rod end thread | 7 mm threaded ends |
| Solar panel thickness | 2 mm |
| Solar panel area | 60 cm2 |
| Solar panel mass | 50 g |
| Ballast fastener thread | M2.5 |
Each material named in the sources: where it is used here, which other products use it, and its key numbers when its material page exists.
Used in 4 partsRails · Rails (material statement) · Ribs (4) · +1 more
Used in 2 partsHinge bodies (deployable solar panels) · Hinge bodies (statement of material)
Used in 2 partsCell electrical connection · Cell application (Hyperion document)
Used in 2 partsBallast vibration isolator · Cell-to-board tape
Used in 1 partScrews (compliance note)
Used in 1 partBurnwire line
Used in 1 partSolar cell type (paper)
Used in 1 partThread locking
Used in 1 partLower-outgassing tape recommended for stricter projects
Used in 1 partDeployment-mechanism parts
Used in 1 partSolar cell (6 per panel, 6S1P)
The Icarus page names only aluminium 6061-T6 and a few hardware items, so panel, adhesive and component lines come from the Ex-Alta 2 Hyperion design document and paper (no assembly needed the 25-line cap).
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solar cell (6 per panel, 6S1P)“Spectrolab’s XTJ-Prime Solar Cells have been selected as Hyperion’s power generation component” | Spectrolab XTJ-Prime (GaAs)spectrolab-xte-sf-solar-cell | bare cell with integrated bypass diode | Spectrolab XTJ-Prime |
| Solar cell type (paper)“housing six of Spectrolab’s GaAs XTJ-Prime solar cells” | GaAsgallium-arsenide | — | Spectrolab XTJ-Prime |
| Cell-to-board tape“Specifically, we used the CAPLINQ PIT2SD,” | double-sided polyimide (Kapton) tape with silicone adhesive, 5 milsilicone-space-grade | — | CAPLINQ PIT2SD |
| Cell electrical connection“EPO-TEK H20E silver epoxy.” | silver epoxysilver-epoxy | — | EPO-TEK H20E |
| Lower-outgassing tape recommended for stricter projects“requirements, we recommend using NuSil CV4-1161-5” | NuSil double-sided polyimide tapepi-kapton-hn | — | NuSil CV4-1161-5 |
| Cell application (Hyperion document)“The solar cells are applied to the substrate using a combination of polyimide tape and double-sided” | polyimide tape, double-sided Kapton tape, silver epoxysilver-epoxy | — | — |
| Burnwire line“Dyneema thread (Berkley Solutions Braid (BSBFS10-22), melting point of ~130 °C)” | Dyneema threaddyneema-spectra-hmpe-fibre | — | BSBFS10-22 |
| Burnwire resistor“Flame Resistant Metal Film Resistors (CPF110R000FKEE6, R-13)” | flame resistant metal film resistor, 10 ohm | — | CPF110R000FKEE6 |
| PCB substrate for cells and electronics“The substrate that these cells are applied to can be seen in the following figures” | (laminate not named) | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature sensor (3 per panel)“The temperature sensor selected for the solar panels is the LMT70YFQR made by Texas Instruments (TI).” | Not said | — | LMT70YFQR |
| Sun sensor photodiode (3 per panel)“The photodiode selected as the sun sensor is the Advanced Photonics PDB-C160SM (R-10).” | Not said | — | PDB-C160SM |
| Current-sense amplifier“The sensor uses an OPA2333PIDSGR (R-11) amplifier” | Not said | — | OPA2333PIDSGR |
| 12-bit I2C ADC“The ADC selected is the 12-Bit AD7291TCPZ-EP I2C (R-12)” | Not said | — | AD7291TCPZ-EP |
| Deployment-state switch (SPDT)“the design uses SPDT switches (PANA-AV4424)” | Not said | — | PANA-AV4424 |
| Panel header“The PicoLock Header manufactured by Molex has been selected.” | Not said | — | — |
No Icarus CAD, drawing or BOM is published (no Icarus repository under github.com/AlbertaSat). Missing: anodize/finish spec for ribs and rods (the page calls rails completely bare while the paper says hinges were anodized with the chassis, and these are not reconciled), HeliCoil alloy, Loctite grade, ballast metals, silicone grade, washer/spacer and fastener alloys, hinge spring material, solar panel PCB laminate, finish, solder and mask (Altium .PcbDoc files are binary and no fabrication notes are in the repo), connector part numbers (PicoLock has no MPN), and the Ex-Alta 2 Prometheus battery board cells and Atlas EPS parts (Altium schematics only). The Icarus page describes panels as 2 arrays of 3 cells while the Hyperion document uses 6 cells per panel; the difference is not explained. Solar-panel and component lines are from Ex-Alta 2's Hyperion boards, which fly on the Icarus structure but are documented separately. The design review TX2-MC-127 Ex-Alta 2 Icarus Design CDR is referenced by the Hyperion document but not public.
RAX-1, built on the kit 
Collected from public pages and documents, checked 4 Nov 2026.
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