Project Summary

Introduction:

LuxCube is a CubeSat project designed to give students at the University of Luxembourg the skills needed to design, build, test, launch and operate a satellite. It also contributes to strengthen the link between the University of Luxembourg and the local and global space industry.

The CubeSat standard was created by California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and Stanford University’s Space Systems Development Lab in 1999 to facilitate access to space for university students. Since then the standard has been adopted by hundreds of organizations worldwide. CubeSat developers include not only universities and educational institutions, but also private firms and government organizations. The CubeSat standard facilitates frequent and affordable access to space with launch opportunities available on most launch vehicles. LuxCube complies with 1U CubeSat standards of 10x10x10cm in size and a maximum weight of 1.33kg.

Objectives

Primary Objective

The primary objective of the LuxCube project is educational, in this sense it aims to:

• Foster and increase the interest of the University of Luxembourg students into aerospace sciences,
• Develop an in-house know-how in CubeSat design, building, testing, launch and operation in order to increase future research activities and opportunities,
• Provide training and hands-on experience on satellite design, build, testing and operation experience to students,
• Foster partnerships for collaborative research into the space domain with other academic institutions,
• Strengthen the link between the University of Luxembourg and the local and global space industry

Secondary Objectives

Imaging Luxembourg from Outer Space

LuxCube current secondary mission is to image Earth, particularly Luxembourg, and to evaluate flight data collected from the subsystems for future CubeSats designs. The primary payload of this mission is thus a camera. The main reason for choosing this secondary objective is multi-faceted. First of all, Earth imaging is a classic application for commercial and institutional satellites, including CubeSat developed by academic institutions. This can be seen clearly in Table 1 below which collects some information about recent academic CubeSat missions, of which six hosted a camera as a primary payload.

University, name of CubeSat, year of launch	Orbit (Perigee, Apogee)	Payload/Mission
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, UWE-1, 2003	Sun-synchronous circular orbit, altitude = 686 km, inclination = 98.2°	Telecommunication experiments on Internet protocols
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, UWE-2, 2009	Sun-synchronous near circular orbit, altitude = 720 km, inclination = 98.28º, period = 99.31 min, the local equatorial crossing time is at 12:00 hours.	Attitude determination and control
TU Berlin, BeeSat-1, 2009	714km*723km, inclination = 98.33°	Camera, micro-reaction wheels
Montana State University, HRBE, 2011	458km*815km, inclination = 101,7°	Geiger tube particle detector
TU Berlin, BeeSat-2, 2013	554km*579km, 64.88°, Period: 95 min	Camera, ACS
TU Berlin, BeeSat-3, 2013	554km*579km, inclination = 64.88°	Camera, on Board Data Handling
City University of New York, CUNYSAT 1, 2013	462km*889km, inclination = 120.5°	Ionospheric scintillation
Naval Postgraduate School, NPS-SCAT, 2013	495km*503km, inclination = 40,51°	Solar Cell Test
Vermont Technical College, Vermont Lunar Cubesat, 2013	494km*502km, inclination = 40,53°	Navigation System Test
Saint-Louis University, COPPER, 2013	498km*502km, inclination = 40,53°	Infrared Camera (Thermal)
Salish Kootenai College, BisonSat, 2015	497km*801km, inclination = 64.78°, period = 97,5 min	Camera
University of Alaska Fairbanks, ARC 1,2015	497km*801km, inclination = 64.78°	Novel low-power attitude control and determination system, communication system capable of high bandwidth data transfer
OUFTI-1, University of Liège, 2016	440.8 km*677.9 km, inclination = 98.1°, period = 95.7 min	D-Star communication protocol
Aalborg University, AAUSAT 4, 2016	443.1 km*668.1 km, inclination = 98.1°, period = 95.6 min	AIS (Automated Identification System) receiver (tracking ships)
Polytechnic University of Turin, E-ST@r-II, 2016	441.3 km*679.0 km, inclination = 98.1°, period = 95.7 minutes	Active Attitude Determination and Control System
TU Berlin, BeeSat-4, 2016	499km*515km, inclination = 97.51°, period = 94.6 min	Advanced precision GPS receiver
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, EagleSat, 2017	454km*818km, inclination = 97,7°	RAM memory, state radiation detector, crystal video receiver, GPS unit
Northwest Nazarene University, MakerSat 0, 2017	454km*818km, inclination = 97,7°, period = 97.4 min	Camera, behaviour of diff. plastics in vacuum of space
University of Montpellier II, ROBUSTA 1B, 2017	496km*512km, inclination = 97.45°, period = 94.6 min	Deterioration in flight of electronic components based on bipolar transistors when exposed to space radiation environment
Brown University, EQUiSat, 2018	400km*400km, inclination = 51.6°	Visible LED beacon, data health and position
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, UWE-4, scheduled for 2018	Sun-synchronous orbit, altitude of ~600 km	Electric propulsion system

The camera has been chosen also because there is an undeniable attractiveness of pictures taken from space. The publicity value of these pictures is considered very important, as they are visually a lot more attractive than data graphs or tables, and would result in a better marketing effect for this project. This is important since LuxCube is the first CubeSat project of the University of Luxembourg and the outreach component will be very important to gather support for the future space projects.

Additional opportunities

A potential third objective is to test solar cells designed and build by the Physics group of the University of Luxembourg. Similarly, the main payload (camera or different sensor) might be built in-house as part of other research projects at the University of Luxembourg. At the current stage the decision on both these topics is still to be made.