Mission Design for the CubeSat OUFTI-1

CHAPTER5MISSION ANALYSISThe mission analysis is the process of quantifying the system parameters andthe resulting performance: its main goal is to analyse whether the mission meetsthe requirements or not.The first step is therefore to define the mission requirements. In this case, due tothe absence of a scientific payload, the only real requirement is to guarantee tothe amateur radio operators a sufficient communication time with a convenientquality. Being the amateur radio operators common all around the world, wechose as main criteria a passing time over Belgium as longer as possible: thisfavor the Belgian amateur radio operators, which seems logical as the CubeSatis Belgian, but guarantees also a sufficient passing time of the spacecraft in viewof the ground station in Liège. Concerning the lifetime, the goal is to ensureenough operating time to successfully test the D-STAR system but, also in thiscase, we are not able to quantify it.The reason of this lack of mission requirements is simple: on the one hand,the ESA offers free launch on board the Vega launcher but it imposes the orbitand, on the other hand, a CubeSat needs to meet some requirements in termsof mass, size, shape and pyrotechnics.We cannot therefore neither choose an orbit that guarantees a longer lifetimeand a sufficient passing time over Belgium, nor add any kind of propulsion, noradopt any peculiar shape of the structure. The only thing that we can do, isto use the available mass and size as good as possible, in order to screen thesensible equipments from the radiation, and to choose omnidirectional antennasto communicate as long as possible with the small amount of power producedin orbit.25