TJREVERB A High School CubeSat Story

High school CubeSat programs inherently face a unique set of challenges. Students enter high school with limited knowledge about programming, electronics, computer-aided design, and systems engineering. They work as volunteers and must balance time between the satellite team, school work, and other personal and academic commitments. Additionally, the team's most experienced members graduate after four years, creating a constant struggle to maintain club knowledge. Finally, high school labs are not set up for CubeSat development, with restricted building hours and school policies significantly slowing progress. The 2U CubeSat developed by students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, called the Thomas Jefferson Research and Education Vehicle for the Evaluation of Radio Broadcasts (TJREVERB), serves as a case study to explore these problems in depth and discuss their potential solutions. We found that mentors are crucial in addressing students' lack of expertise by providing guidance on technical problems and project management organization. Proper development procedures and documentation also helped alleviate the difficulty in maintaining continuity amid a four-year member turnover. Finally, a strong program culture helped increase student engagement and participation despite the time commitment challenges faced by high school students. We hope that the lessons learned on TJREVERB can provide other high school CubeSat teams with insight into navigating potential roadblocks during development to further streamline the process of educational CubeSat development.