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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Design Of A 1-U Cubesat Structure For The Open Prototype For Educational Nanosats, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh Apr 2015

Design Of A 1-U Cubesat Structure For The Open Prototype For Educational Nanosats, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

CubeSats are a class of small satellites that have recently gained significant interest and are being developed and used for engineering test missions, bona fide research and various other applications. A 1-U CubeSat (the orig-inal form factor) has nominal dimensions of 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm and a mass of no more than 1.33 kg [1](however, some integrators are now consistently allow-ing higher mass levels). Due to their small size and the demonstrated ability to successfully use consumer-grade electronics in low-Earth orbit, CubeSats cost sig-nificantly less than larger sized satellites [2]. These re-duced costs, however, are still …


Mechanical Design Of A Low-Cost Deployable Solar Panel Array For A 1-U Cubesat, Thomas Mcguire, Skye Leake, Michael Parsons, Michael Hirsch, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, David Whalen Mar 2015

Mechanical Design Of A Low-Cost Deployable Solar Panel Array For A 1-U Cubesat, Thomas Mcguire, Skye Leake, Michael Parsons, Michael Hirsch, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, David Whalen

Jeremy Straub

CubeSats are small spacecraft with a nominal size of 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm and a mass of 1.33 kg (though some launch providers are now supporting expanded mass levels). While the CubeSat form factor has reduced the time and cost of spacecraft development, the required resources are still beyond the grasp of many colleges and universities. The Open Prototype for Educational Nanosats (OPEN) concept aims to solve this problem. OPEN is an inexpensive modular CubeSat that can be produced with a parts budget of less than $5,000. The OpenOrbiter program is working to develop this set …