Mission Design for the CubeSat OUFTI-1

CHAPTER13CONCLUSIONSThis work constitutes a complete feasibility study for the CubeSat OUFTI-1.The goal was to demonstrate that with the assigned orbit, we can effectivelydesign, build and operate the satellite.We analyzed the orbit and its evolution in time: we obtained a lifetime of 4.2years, a field of view length of up to more than 6000 Km and an available communicationtime with the ground station in Liège of up to 104 min/day. A studyon the radiation environment has also been carried out to identify the necessarythickness of shielding material. The structure and the deployment systemhave been discussed, as well as the attitude control feasibility. Furthermore, wecalculated the power available: OUFTI-1 disposes continuously of 1.3 W. Themaximal and minimal satellite’s temperature in orbit have been estimated fordifferent coatings with a nodes model: among the acceptable solutions we havea temperature range between 255K in the cold case with black coating and 307K in the hot case with golden coating. Thanks to the link budget, we know thatthe available power is enough to guarantee a good communication between theomnidirectional antennas of the satellite on the assigned orbit and the groundstation. Finally the different tests have been presented.The results show that the design is feasible and that the mission could effectivelywork with the available power and mass. Some effort need to be done tooptimize the payload efficiency but the mission target can be reached.On the educational point of view, the goal has definitely been achieved: weexperienced in fact the participation to a real satellite design phase and to ateam work. Furthermore some external events as the CubeSat workshop atthe European Space Technology Research Center were really challenging butmotivating tasks.115