CubeSat Mission: From Design to Operation

Abstract

The current success rate of CubeSat missions, particularly for first-time developers, may discourage non-profit organizations to start new projects. CubeSat development teams may not be able to dedicate the resources that are necessary to maintain Quality Assurance as it is performed for the reliable conventional satellite projects. This paper discusses the structured life-cycle of a CubeSat project, using as a reference the authors’ recent experience of developing and operating a 2U CubeSat, called qbee50-LTU-OC, as part of the QB50 mission. This paper also provides a critique of some of the current poor practices and methodologies while carrying out CubeSat projects.

Dynamic frequency scheduling for CubeSat's on-board and data handling subsystem

“…EPS distributes power to all subsystems and ensures the CubeSat has enough power to continue operation until the end of its mission. OBDH will check the battery voltage and current supplied to all subsystems and store the data as housekeeping data [11].…”

Comprehensive design and control methodology for DC‐powered satellite electrical subsystem based on PV and battery

“…To do so, Ah rated are transformed into rated watt-hours (E rated ) using cell voltage, for both charging and discharging. The curve fitting technique is used to fit the aforementioned curves into a suitable polynomial as expressed in (5). The equation helps to quickly evaluate the different design parameters, where a n , a n−1 , and a 0 etc.…”

“…Satellite missions have increased in recent years thanks to CubeSats, which made possible a variety of exploratory and scientific space applications [1][2][3][4][5][6]. For example, satellites have improved solar power predictions and aid in planning of PV plants for economic viability by providing irradiation data [7,8].…”

Testing Lab-on-a-Chip Technology for Culturing Human Melanoma Cells under Simulated Microgravity

“…Another crucial feature is the compact size of the experiment. While sounding rockets and parabolic flights allow to conduct quite sizeable experiments exceeding the size of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm cubic units, it remains a basic unit of the research nanosatellites CubeSat [ 32 , 33 ], as well as the ICE Cubes Service-cubic experiments placed on the ISS to carry our investigations in real microgravity [ 34 ].…”