Design, Manufacturing, Building and Testing Subsystems of Cube Satellite

Abstract or Introduction

This document describes a B.Sc. graduation project (2014). The main objective of this third iteration of the Cairo University Cube Satellite is the design, manufacturing, building and testing selected subsystems of Cube Satellite. The mission of the Cube satellite is Earth imaging and the whole process uses COTS.

This document is organized the introduction and six chapters each describes one of the selected subsystems. The mission analysis and orbital determination chapter selects the best orbit matched to the mission requirements. The electrical power subsystem generates energy via the sun, distributes and manages the power among the other subsystems. The attitude determination and control is responsible for the orientation of the Cube Satellite in orbit, and controls the orientation of the Cube Satellite.

The communications subsystem is responsible for the data transmission from/to the Cube satellite and the ground station. The command and data-handling center (On Board Computer) handles all the data and commands on the Cube satellite and controls the Cube satellite modes and states. Finally, the structure subsystem chapter includes design the cube satellite structure, stress and weight analysis, inertia and natural frequencies determination. All collected and auxiliary data, code snippets, specification sheets… etc. are presented in eight appendices at the end of the document. A secondary objective is enrich the documentation of the current level of the knowhow achieved by the participants of the project.