General system design of Cubesat in LEO for IR imaging

Abstract

A Cubesat is a miniature sized Satellite having a volume of exactly one liter with a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms. The design of a Cubesat is simple which allows low cost for its development. This paper describes the outline of a proposed Cubesat Project, named IR_SAT, by the students of Institute of Space Technology. The project aims for design and development of a 10cm cubic satellite weighing less than 1kg. The major mission of Satellite is to study the vegetation pattern and soil moisture on the areas of Pakistan. For this monitoring IR Imager will be used that is unaffected by the Earth Albedo. The satellite is supposed to operate at an altitude of 400 km above Sea and perform the limited LEO science mission. In addition to the IR_Sat description, the detailed subsystems are also discussed along with their corresponding budget in this paper.