Cubesats built with commercially available components and materials and lacks on-board propulsion to maintain its orbital position last about one year. It is possible for them to last 2-5 years but there is increasing chances of failures.
If you were planning a science or commercial mission in space, then you would to plan to get everything done in the first 12 months. There could be plans to continue if the health of the cubesat was good. Another 3-6 month project and mission the main mission depending on operational assessments in month 11-12.
It is customary for such designs to disregard completely half-century of design experience accumulated in the effort of making better space systems. The first satellites, which were built without that sum of experience, lasted roughly about a year too, with many exceptions that lasted years and decades. Pioneer-6 has maintained some functionality after 58 years in deep space, and apparently still is operational.
One example. NASA docs say “Sn63Pb37 solder only, because [countless evidence why only]”. All commercial electronic components today, with exceedingly rare exceptions, get either pure Sn or SnAgCu solder, because EU had a tantrum at some point at the expense of the entire electronics industry and its clients (which is the whole world). Sn and SnAgCu solders grow needle crystals that short everything, which is why all components that go into systems with any reliability requirements need “solder conversion” into Sn63Pb37 solder. This is just one of great many things completely ignored by makers of cubesats, and no surprise their products fail so quickly.
I would expect solder using tin & lead to be cheaper than solder that includes silver.
Was the EU rule about avoiding the toxicity of lead rather than expense?
It might still be a mistake. Making your electronics last longer is probably a net environmental benefit.
It doesn’t surprise in the least me seeing a bureaucratic institution like the EU screwing up the world in the name of the pious fad of the day.
It is customary for such designs to disregard completely half-century of design experience accumulated in the effort of making better space systems. The first satellites, which were built without that sum of experience, lasted roughly about a year too, with many exceptions that lasted years and decades. Pioneer-6 has maintained some functionality after 58 years in deep space, and apparently still is operational.
One example. NASA docs say “Sn63Pb27 solder only, because [countless evidence why only]”. All commercial electronic components today, with exceedingly rare exceptions, get either pure Sn or SnAgCu solder, because EU had a tantrum at some point at the expense of the entire electronics industry and its clients (which is the whole world). Sn and SnAgCu solders grow needle crystals that short everything, which is why all components that go into systems with any reliability requirements need “solder conversion” into Sn63Pb37 solder. This is just one of great many things completely ignored by most makers of cubesats, and no surprise their products fail so quickly.