UPCSat-1: Analysis, Design and Breadboarding of a University Picosatellite

UPCSat-1 follows the CubeSat standard for low-cost, fast-developing picosatellites (1 liter of volume, 1 kg of mass). Nowadays many universities are taking part on this initiative because it provides hands-on experience in the development of a whole space mission with all its subsystems, and also carries the coordination, responsibility and hard work necessary of a large engineering project. The present mission is intended firstly for educational purposes (it is made by and for the students) and secondly to show technology demonstrators with some devices implemented at the UPC. It is also remarkable the purchasing of a Ground Station, not only to be able to design and implement the satellite, but also, once in orbit, to perform mission operations. Moreover, it will be taking part of a global network called GENSO, another educational project with the aim to interconnect all ground stations to dramatically enhance satellite coverage. This report describes the first development stages done, as well as it defines the further work lines to achieve the final implementation. Thereby, the progress of UPCSat-1 subsystems is described in each Chapter. Their feasibility in the mission has been studied for all of them, being many simulated by computer and some of them even implemented. The results extended in the conclusions prove that such a mission is feasible even with the low budget available and, although there is still much work to do, the most dificult steps to reach the top implementation have already been walked