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Projecte llegit

Títol: On-Board Computer software and FlatSat testing for the 3Cat-4 CubeSat mission

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: PARK, HYUK

Departament: FIS

Títol: On-Board Computer software and FlatSat testing for the 3Cat-4 CubeSat mission

Data inici oferta: 08-02-2021     Data finalització oferta: 08-10-2021


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Nom del segon director/a (UPC): Lara Fernandez, Joan Adria Ruiz de Azua
Departament 2n director/a:
 
Paraules clau:
CubeSat, NanoSat, Space Engineering, FlatSat, Testing, Software, Onboard Computer
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
As part of this work, the software development for the 3Cat-4
mission will be done. This software development comprises developing
the communication between the On-Board Computer and the subsystems,
as well as the commanding and telemetry retrieval between
subsystems. Also, the development includes switching satellite modes
and interpretation of all the commands received from Earth. This
software development will be tested with the satellite in flat form,
so-called FlatSat, to verify its correct behavior
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
Last times technological breakthroughs allowed miniaturization of components and combined with the introduction of the CubeSat standard resulted in the creations of components without the need of platform customization. A new industry, known as NewSpace,
emerged from these two premises, where the entry barriers both from an economical and
technical point of view are lower than the traditional space industry, known as OldSpace.
In the frame of NewSpace, the research center from UPC-BarcelonaTech, Nanosatellite
and Payload Laboratory, known as NanoSat Lab, develops CubeSats missions specializing
in Earth Observation payloads, such as reflectometry and radiometry.
One of these missions is the one known as 3Cat-4, a nanosatellite that follows the standard
of 1 unit. 3Cat-4 develops under the scope of the project ¿Fly Your Satellite! II¿ from the
European Space Agency. The agency provides support during the development of the
mission as well as sponsors the launch.
This thesis contributes in the development of the 3Cat-4 mission, specifically in the development of software. On one side, it contributes to flight software, which runs embedded
in the on-board computer of the nanosatellite. The most relevant contributions are the
integration of the different subsystems onto the on-board computer, the creation of an error management layer and the implementation of a state logic that provides the system
more autonomy for self-management. On the other side, it contributes implementing a
satellite data visualization system that allow to control the satellite during the testing and
developing phase as well as the operations phase, in orbit.
Finally, the software implementations done are verified performing test in FlatSat configuration. The most relevant ones are included in this thesis. This testing allows to validate
the system both from a software and hardware point of view.
The conclusions of the thesis are the importance of developing robust software that allows
the control of the system¿s state in every moment and autonomously from ground, due
to the important constraint of not being able to access the spacecraft anytime. Also, it is
important to perform the required testing in order to cover all the possible cases and to
characterize the system¿s behavior.

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