Development Overview

The engineering content of this site, one page per subsystem or activity, listed in the order a new project usually meets them. If you read one page before starting, make it Systems Engineering.

Systems Engineering
Mission-level design, requirements, interfaces, budgets, and tradeoffs across the entire CubeSat lifecycle. Read this one first.

Structure
Frames, materials, fasteners, the board stack, mass properties, deployables and structural analysis for structural integrity and deployer compatibility.

Electrical Power Systems (EPS)
Power budgets, generation, storage, regulation, distribution, and protection for all spacecraft subsystems.

Onboard Computing (OBC)
MCUs, FPGAs, and SBCs used to control the spacecraft, the radiation environment that shapes the choice, and the buses that link subsystems.

Flight Software
Onboard software for data handling, command execution, mode management, fault detection, timing, updates and testing.

Communications
Radio systems for telemetry, tracking, command, and payload downlink across UHF to X-band, and the licensing that constrains them.

Ground Segment
Ground stations, antennas, tracking, decoding, commanding, automation and data archiving – from SatNOGS to a custom station.

Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC)
State estimation and control of spacecraft, covering ADCS sensors, actuators, algorithms and navigation (GNSS, orbits).

Propulsion
Whether a CubeSat needs propulsion at all, the delta-v it buys, the options at CubeSat scale, and the safety requirements that come with it.

Thermal Management
The orbital thermal environment, passive and active strategies for keeping components within safe operating temperatures, modeling and TVAC testing.

Payload
Mission instruments and experimental hardware for sensing, data collection, and technology demonstration, and what they demand of the bus.

Inhibits, Hold Down and Release Mechanisms (HDRM)
Launch safety mechanisms including inhibits, deployment switches, RBF pins, timers, and hold-down and release systems.

Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT)
Mechanical assembly, electrical integration, simulation, functional testing, and environmental qualification.

Qualification and Launch
Turning test evidence into a delivery package, procuring a launch, insurance, licensing, debris rules, deployers, delivery and end of life.

Tools and Helpers
Practical tools, jigs, fixtures, instruments, software and budget templates used during development and assembly.