Objectives¶

At the beginning of the second semester of 2014, Telecom Bretagne acquired a Cubesat Kit from the manufacturer Pumpkin, Inc. for the Campus Toulouse, in order to access to this technology, well-known and popular in the academic environment.

As a first project, a group of students of the Mastère Specialisé - Space Communication Systems, started working on the platform in order to develop a proof of concept for more complex, later studies,experiments and missions. This included, a familiarization with the hardware and software provided, and the design of a feasible mission according with the time and equipment available: a beacon transmitting data through amateur radio standards. Taking advantage of work already done in other projects at the SatCom lab, the format chosen for the communications is RTTY.

Since the communication with ground, the command and control, and other critical functions comprising the bus of the satellite, are key factors in the success of every Cubesat mission, the work done and the experience obtained in this project will be of use for future undertakings.