European Journal of Remote Sensing (Jan 2017)

3Cat-1 project: a multi-payload CubeSat for scientific experiments and technology demonstrators

  • Roger Jove-Casurellas,
  • Carles Araguz,
  • Pol Via,
  • Arnau Solanellas,
  • Adrià Amézaga,
  • David Vidal,
  • Joan Francesc Muñoz,
  • Marc Marí,
  • Roger Olivé,
  • Alberto Saez,
  • Jaume Jané,
  • Elisenda Bou-Balust,
  • Mario Iannazzo,
  • Sergi Gorreta,
  • Pablo Ortega,
  • Joan Pons-Nin,
  • Manuel Dominguez,
  • Eduard Alarcón,
  • Juan Ramos,
  • Adriano Camps

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/22797254.2017.1274568
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 50, no. 1
pp. 125 – 136

Abstract

Read online

This article introduces 3Cat-1, the first project of the Technical University of Catalonia to build and launch a nano-satellite. Its main scope is to develop, construct, assemble, test and launch into a low Earth orbit a CubeSat with seven different payloads (mono-atomic oxygen detector, graphene field-effect transistor, self-powered beacon, Geiger radiation counter, wireless power transfer (WPT), new topology solar cells and WPT experiment), all fitted in a single-unit CubeSat. On one hand, this is mainly an educational project in which the development of some of the subsystems is carried out by undergraduate and postgraduate students. The satellite demonstrates its capabilities as a cost-effective platform to perform small scientific experiments and to demonstrate some of the new technologies that it incorporates.

Keywords