Design of a University Nano-Satellite: the PiCPoT Case

Satellites are not necessarily something huge and expensive. Small satellites have been designed (or are being designed) by several universities. These satellites must fit within tight cost constraints, for the launch and the actual satellite hardware. Success in developing these satellites, and the related technologies and methods, would enable an easier access to space, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), leading to new markets and applications. We present the architecture of a small university satellite that we developed. The main design criteria were low costs and fault tolerance. To meet the first one, we chose to use commercial off the shelf (COTS) components wherever possible. For the second one, we replicated all the satellite critical functions, using different technologies and solutions, while constantly monitoring the state of the system for failures. The focus is on overall organization, design partitioning, and details of the actual hardware. We show that the development of a low-cost satellite is feasible with a limited budget.