2019.B.2.4. X-CubeSat post mission analysis

Author(s)

Nicolas Lequette (1)
Lilia Solovyeva (1)

École polytechnique, France

Session

B.1

Keywords

QB50 X-CubeSat housekeeping data feedback

Abstract

X-CubeSat is a nanosatellite designed by student of École Polytechnique, developed between 2011 and 2016, and launched on May the 17th 2017 from the ISS. As a part of the QB50 project, which aims to facilitate the study of the thermosphere with a network of student satellites. We would like to present our post mission analysis and our experience feedback Thanks to more than one and a half year worth of housekeeping data collected by our ground station and the collection of two-line elements across the satellite lifespan, we may put the physical measurements of the CubeSat, such as solar panels temperature, voltage and current, battery charge and temperature other subsystems states, regarding the satellite position at the time of their emission. This analysis will provide validation or refinement for the models developed by the students during the development of the CubeSat, for use in our future projects. Searching for correlation in sun exposure and solar panels energy production will also allow to get to the satellite altitude to assert the effectiveness of the ADCS. The power system performances and aging may also be studied through battery temperature and the collection of current measurements. This feedback will be used for the next student CubeSat mission.