HSE MIEM Students to Develop Two Satellites from Scratch for Orbital Experiments
The devices, created by student teams, will conduct space research on the properties of promising solar cells, on-board energy storage systems, and serial electronics for student satellites.
The small satellites are being developed as part of the Personnel for Space national project by a team of staff and students from the HSE MIEM Laboratory of Space Vehicles and Systems' Functional Safety, who have accumulated significant successful experience in developing and maintaining spacecraft in orbit.
Participation in the Personnel for Space project is a new step in student satellite engineering at the laboratory, which faces fundamentally new tasks related to the engineering, operation, and functionality of satellites launched into orbit.
All previously launched university cubesats in the CubeSX-HSE series were implemented on ready-made commercial platforms. The laboratory staff and students developed the payload for each device and carried out a set of measures for satellite maintenance and control of its operation in space.
Under the terms of competitions won, student teams (with expert support from industrial partners) must design and assemble the CubeSat 3U and 4U platforms for each device at all stages—from assembling a project team and technical specifications to the release of design documentation, conducting ground tests, and creating and registering intellectual property results with the obligatory co-authorship of students. The practical result of each project should be a real satellite model ready for launch into orbit. The laboratory team must go through the full development cycle of all the main subsystems of the satellite.
Dmitrii Abrameshin
‘Developing cubesats from scratch means a fundamentally new level of tasks and responsibilities for us. In fact, we are currently making a qualitative transition from maintenance operator to small spacecraft developer, since we are doing everything ourselves—from life support systems to payloads,’ said Dmitrii Abrameshin, Head of the Laboratory of Space Vehicles and Systems' Functional Safety. ‘At the same time, the planned functionality of the satellites involves a whole range of new tasks for developing the payload configuration. A few years ago, we were not ready for such challenges, but now we have the infrastructure, proven partners, accumulated experience and, most importantly, a cohesive team of specialists of employees and students. In this sense, the planned satellites are a continuation of the laboratory’s consistent development. The new scope of tasks will be an important incentive for everyone involved in the project, allowing them to develop practical skills in designing small spacecraft subsystems, circuit and software development, assembly, integration, testing, working with telemetry, and analysing the results of orbital experimentation.’
The first device, developed under the UniverSat competition, is designed for orbital testing of solar cells and energy storage systems. Perovskite solar cells will be placed on the outer panel of the satellite, and the payload will include a measuring system. It will record the voltage characteristics of cells and cycle organic batteries, registering the degradation of their parameters under the influence of radiation, ultraviolet, and temperature fluctuations. This data is required for the development of new spacecraft power supply systems. The scientific partner of the project on advanced energy generation and storage systems is the Federal Research Centre of Problems of Chemical Physics and Medicinal Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The second device, created as part of the StudSputniki competition, solves an applied problem for the entire community of student and school satellite engineering. Today, teams working in the Space-π programme and university design bureaus have to outfit their vehicles with expensive specialised electronics created for use in space. Meanwhile, there is no open data on the use of mass-produced commercial components in orbit today. The MIEM satellite will become an orbital testbed: the on-board controller will periodically test serial microcontrollers, memory modules, and power electronics components and register failures and degradation related to accumulated radiation. Following the mission results, the team will create an open data set on the radiation resistance of such components, which will subsequently help other teams choose available components and lower the threshold for entry into practical satellite engineering.
Maria Bubnova
‘A student project team has been formed to coherently solve several parallel tasks related to the development of the satellite platform and systems, as well as payload components. To ensure effective expert and methodological support of the workflow and student education, we plan to attract proven, strong specialists from partner companies who will help students quickly get into the workflow and gain the necessary competencies and knowledge at the start of the project,’ said Maria Bubnova, head of the StudSputniki project and leading programmer at the Laboratory of Space Vehicles and Systems' Functional Safety.
Both projects also solve personnel problems. At least half of the engineering positions in the teams are taken by students and doctoral students, while the position of chief engineer of the device in each project is assigned to a student. In addition, the project administration will implement an education programme of at least 144 academic hours and will issue certificates of continuing professional education to the students (at least 30 participants). All training will be focused on real-case development, with participants responsible for a specific element of the satellite model.
In-orbit spacecraft control and telemetry reception will be provided by the MIEM HSE Mission Control Centre with the Zavitok M transceiver station. The telemetry of both satellites will be transmitted in an open format, which will allow amateur radio operators and school teams to receive and decode it.
Ivan Nosov
Ivan Nosov, chief engineer of the developed devices, bachelor's student at MIEM, and research assistant at the laboratory, believes that developing the platform and payload of new satellites from scratch will attract talented new students to the laboratory. ‘To assemble an effective team, we need students with the knowledge and desire to develop in mathematics, engineering, security, electronics, and materials science. We invite to our laboratory all undergraduate, graduate, and specialist students looking to immerse themselves in solving real space problems,’ he said.
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