The current success rate of CubeSat missions, particularly for first-time developers, may discourage non-profit organizations to start new projects. CubeSat development teams may not be able to dedicate the resources that are necessary to maintain Quality Assurance as it is performed for the reliable conventional satellite projects. This paper discusses the structured life-cycle of a CubeSat project, using as a reference the authors’ recent experience of developing and operating a 2U CubeSat, called qbee50-LTU-OC, as part of the QB50 mission. This paper also provides a critique of some of the current poor practices and methodologies while carrying out CubeSat projects.

Communication systems are adopting all‐software architectures, because of their scalability, extensibility, flexibility, and cost‐effectiveness. This paper introduces a concurrent approach to the development and verification of baseband systems for satellite ground operations based on the behaviour‐driven development methodology. The open‐source GNU Radio development kit is used for developing the software‐defined radio baseband signal processing, as well as simulating the satellite and realistic channel impairments. The system performance at the end shows deviations of less than 1 dB with respect to the ideal performance and the Green Book standards specified by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems.

Embedded systems for space applications should be tested with methods that may not necessarily match the traditional computer approaches, due to some especial requirements for such systems. This paper presents an Integrated Design and Simulation Environment (IDSE) for the verification and validation of onboard computers, using a hardware-in-the-loop platform.

This article provides a proposal case for studying simulations of spacecraft formation maneuvers in a Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation Testbed specifically devoted to nanosatellites. The design specifications of the setup to perform such simulations are given, as well as the methods and results of the preliminary characterization of the floating platform to be used. The intent is to create a corpus of tests to find the dynamic behavior in a frictionless simulation as part of a concurrent decentralized simulation between the NanoSat Lab in Luleå University of Technology and the Guidance and Navigation Lab at La Sapienza.

Federated remote laboratories allow for the execution of experiments ex situ. The coordination of several laboratories can be used to perform concurrent experiments of combined space operations. However, the latency of the communications between facilities is critical to performing adequate real-time experiments. This paper presents an approach for conducting coordinated experiments between floating platforms at two remote laboratories. Two independently designed platforms, one at Luleå University of Technology and the other at La Sapienza University of Rome, were established for this purpose. A synchronization method based on the Simple Network Time Protocol was created, allowing the offset and delay between the agents to be measured.Both platforms exchange data about their measured time and pose through a UDP/IP protocol over the internet. This approach was validated with the execution of simulated operations. A first demonstrative experiment was also performed showing the possibility to realize leader/follower coordinated operations. The results of the simulations and experiments showed communication delays on the order of tens of milliseconds with no significant impact on the control performance. Consequently, the suggested protocol was proven to be adequate for conducting coordinated experiments in real time between remote laboratories.

One of the challenges that satellites face is the interaction between control movement and vibration of flexible appendages such as solar arrays and antennas that can negatively affect the performance of the spacecraft. The aim of this work is to develop a numerical model of a solar panel structure for KNATTE (Kinesthetic Node and Autonomous Table-Top Emulator), a frictionless platform developed by the Space Systems group at LuleåUniversity of Technology, and develop a control law that reduces the flexible vibration of the solar arrays when attitude control manoeuvres are performed. A set of solar panel structures have been designed and tested, the mathematical model of the multibody system, which consists of KNATTE and two flexible solar panels, has been developed in MATLAB by applying the finite element method. A finite element analysis has been performed in MATLAB to extract the natural frequencies of the system. The model has been numerically verified using a commercial software, and experimentally verified by performing testing on the frictionless vehicle, KNATTE, equipped with the solar panel structures and a number of piezoelectric sensors. Once the model has been verified, a Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) controller has been developed using the results from the finite element model in order to reduce the amplitude of the vibrations of the flexible solar panel structure. The behaviour of the system has been simulated when the spacecraft performs an attitude manoeuvre. The finite element model provides the modal behaviour of the multibody system, obtaining its natural frequencies with low relative error. The LQG controller reduces the amplitude of the vibrations of the flexible solar panel structure.