Satellite Systems Engineering Intern

University Nanosatellite Program (UNP), Mission Concept Program (MC-1)

Space Dynamics Laboratory

Role: Intern

May 2023 - July 2023

Locations: Albuquerque, NM. Cape Canaveral, FL. Melbourne, FL.

This summer program taught students the basics of system engineering and how to navigate the process of developing and designing a CubeSat mission. 

Three other students from Florida Tech, our Principal Investigator (Prof. Paula Do Vale Pereira), and I worked together to conceptualize a CubeSat mission for our university. Since the goal was to learn systems engineering, we focused mainly on ensuring mission relevance and feasibility. After many iterations, budgets, and descopes, our end product was a preliminary mission to demonstrate broad-spectrum remote sensing onboard a CubeSat for possible future lunar applications.

Throughout the summer, we attended multiple workshops led by experts in their respective fields. This is how we learned the basics. We used this knowledge to construct a mission statement, objectives, requirements, and subsystem requirements for our mission. We also formed preliminary budgets, such as link, power, data, pointing, and mass. During this program, we had two major deliverables: a Systems Concept Review (SCR) and a System Requirements Review (SRR). Once completed, these documents were reviewed by our peers and mentors, and we received feedback.

The workshops we attended, the guidance we received, and the feedback on our documentation were given by employees from the following organizations: