The CubeSat class of nanosatellites has lowered the barrier of entry to space and has rapidly gained popularity in recent years. To successfullydesign a CubeSat system in a rapid cycle conducive to academic timelines, a Reference Architecture geared towards University CubeSatdevelopment would be helpful. A Reference Architecture would speed up the development process by providing a template, capturing previouswork and lessons learned from subject matter experts, providing a framework to focus on the CubeSats design rather than the fine details ofmodeling software. A Reference Architecture can also add functionality that student teams could use and improve over time, such as pre-builtanalysis functions and a library of components to choose from. This thesis presents a CubeSat Reference Architecture designed to meet these needsand explores its unique features, diagrams, and custom libraries. The CubeSat Reference Architecture was validated by relevant course instructorsand is being used by a cohort of students in the Spacecraft Design Sequence at AFIT.
Reference Architecture for Rapid CubeSat Development
2021
108 pages
Report
No indication
English
Air force , Artificial satellites , Department of defense , Digital engineering , Engineering , Engineers , Instructors , Lessons learned , Model based systems engineering , Small satellites , Software prototyping , Spacecraft , Students , Systems engineering , Systems modeling language , United states government , Unmanned aerial systems