Proposed OBC Prototype for CubeSat

Abdalrahman, Mohamed Elazab; Fikry, Ahmed Ehab; Nasr Eldeen, Mahmoud; Hussein, Sherif; Elshafey, Mohamed A.

doi:10.21608/iugrc.2021.246364

Proposed OBC Prototype for CubeSat

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Computer Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt.

10.21608/iugrc.2021.246364

Abstract

The Cube Satellite (CubeSat) is an ideal solution to gain access to space in terms of budget and integration time for research and experimental science payloads. The On-Board Computer (OBC) is considered to be the main subsystem of the CubeSat among others. It manages all the tasks taking place within the satellite. Its main function is to interpret the orders from Earth, treat and return the results. This paper surveys a previously developed CubeSat OBCs with focus on the characteristics of the embedded system used in the design and implementation phases. Then, it presents the design, development and implementation process of a prototype OBC hardware and software for CubeSat. The proposed software architecture is implemented as a prototype on one of STMicroelectronics boards. The choice of this development board was highly motivated by the mission of the CubeSat. Finally, a series of tests are successfully conducted to evaluate the proposed architecture.

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