Bounding the problem: microsatellite design using commercial-off-the-shelf architecture

One of the potentially biggest pitfalls academic institutions can fall into when attempting to design new microsatellite missions is to start from scratch. A completely open-ended problem creates a nearly infinite time sink for students and faculty as they struggle to meet primary mission requirements while inventing the overall system architecture. Fortunately, commercial-off-the-shelf spacecraft architectures offer the opportunity to significantly bound the design space, allowing students and faculty to devote scarce time and other resources to the most important aspects of mission design and overall systems engineering. This paper describes recent experience at the USAF academy in applying the "SNAP" nanosatellite architecture, designed by Surrey Satellite Technology, UK, to the FalconSAT-2 program. The SNAP architecture is first described followed by a discussion of its application to FalconSAT-2, including how it influenced system design decisions and accelerated system development.