In-orbit preliminary results from the open-source educational nanosatellite FloripaSat-I

• Published in: Acta astronautica 2021-11, Vol.188, p.64-80
• Main Authors: Marcelino, Gabriel Mariano, Morsch Filho, Edemar, Martinez, Sara Vega, Seman, Laio Oriel, Bezerra, Eduardo Augusto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerospace engineering; Chinese space program; Colleges & universities; Cubesat; Cubesats; Embedded systems; Flight heritage; In-orbit validation; Long March launch vehicles; Microprocessors; Nanosatellites; Satellites; Service modules; Subsystems
• ISSN: 0094-5765; 1879-2030
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.07.001

This paper presents the embedded systems along with the first in-orbit results of FloripaSat-I, a complete CubeSat mission developed at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The satellite’s service module has three main subsystems, each with an embedded processor and its peripherals. This paper presents an overview of the nanosatellite architecture designed for the mission, including the embedded systems, functionalities, and components. Launched in December 2019 atop a Chinese Long March 4B rocket, FloripaSat-I has been since then transmitting mission data, which is a metric used to validate its open-source service platform through flight heritage. The results collected in orbit are presented and discussed, as well as the student’s perception about the challenges in the project. With the analysis of the results, it is possible to identify technical points to be improved by external groups with interest to reuse the open-source service platform for the next missions, and the impact that this teaching–learning methodology has in the students. •We present the FloripaSat-I embedded systems.•Flight results regarding the first three months are presented.•We validate the FloripaSat-I service platform with flight inheritance.