cactus-open

Open source documentation, hardware and code for a CubeSat

We provide 4 documents for use by other CubeSat teams, 3 of which comprise our "CubeSat Cookbook".

1. CubeSat_Cookbook_Vol_1_Engineering_Guide.pdf (by R. Pierce Smith) is a comprehensive guide to building your own CubeSat at a detailed engineering level, and includes lessons learned from our Cactus-1 mission.

2. CubeSat_Cookbook_Vol_2_Newcomers_Guide.pdf (by Jorge Rodriguez) is designed for newcomers to CubeSats and discusses some of the overarcing concepts including power, mission readiness reviews, and building effective teams.

3. CubeSat_Cookbook_Vol_3_Common_EPS.pdf (by Erik Schroen) walks you through how to design and customize the electrical power system for your specific CubeSat mission (based on lessons learned from Cactus-1).

4. TheHABHandbook.pdf (by Ian Hastings) is a guide for teams starting up High Altitude Balloon projects. Under Capitol's "Crawl, Walk, Run" philosophy, we highly recommend teams look at flying payloads and components via HAB as an effective way to iteratively improve your designs.

Acknowledgements: The Cactus-1 mission is Capitol Technology University's first CubeSat mission. Our launch opportunity was provided via the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative. The Cactus-1 mission is supported by grants from the Maryland Space Grant Consortium (MDSGC).

5. We also provide Ralph Stormer III's "PuzzleSat" 3D-printable CubeSat structure models. This is a simple modular system for building CubeSat-spec PC104-size-compliant test frames for 1U, 2U, 3U, and other variants so engineering teams can practice working within the CubeSat size requirements. Documetation, STL and CAD files, and a photo are provided. They are also fun for prototyping, and we use them for student payload low altitude tests as well.

6. We also provide our hardware schematics, CAD files, and anxillary data to help jumpstart other teams. Our hardware on this github repository is released under the CERN Open Hardware License version 1.2. Credit for the Work should be given to R.P. Smith in terms of authorship. Individual items will indicate citation/credits as well. Generally, you can use this to build your own CubeSat, the full license terms are below.

• Cactus-1 contains the files for our specific architecture
• CADD Files contains the Cactus-1 stack and board designs used
• EaglePCBs contains PC104, solar, and other bus panels suitable for modding

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Specific citations and history are given for each component as follows:

Cactus-1 proposals and mission overviews: A. Antunes, R. Schrenk, R. P. Smith, A. Walters, R. Maharaja, M. Horvath

Hermes payload (on Cactus only-- for Hermes sounding rockets, see Maharaja) by C. Murray, E. Schroen (power Board design), Carlos Del Cid, R. Maharaja, P. Smith, IP rights retained by R. Maharaja

Trapsat payload by R. Schrenk, K. Moore, Z. Richards, M. Strittmatter, A. Walters, R. P. Smith, IP rights retained by R. Schrenk

3U++ Tabbed Frame: by R. P. Smith, R. Schrenk, provided under an open hardware license

Pi-CPU/Health & Safety Boards: by R. P. Smith, A. Antunes, provided under an open hardware license

Power bus: by R. P. Smith, G. Auvray, C. Odigwe, A. Antunes, R. Schrenk

Solar: (Added this because power and solar have different aspects (i.e. licensing to use) by R. P. Smith with assembly help from George Gieomekis, Marcus Bailey, Sam Lawson, Nick Keller, Sarah Sharpe, Alex English, Nick Aniello, Chris Finch

Passive Magnetics: by E. Routhier, B Reese , R. P. Smith with help by Ian Hastings, Christina Williams

Flight software by A. Antunes with help by Randy Powell, Zalika Dixon, and thanks to Alan Cudmore for useful discussion on his “PiSat” concept

Thermal blankets by R. Schrenk with help by Sarah Sharpe, Marcus Bailey, and George Giakoumakis

Comms: by M. Horvath, A. Johnson, A. Antunes

Burn wire, foot switches, inhibits, ports, and subsystems not mentioned: considered either part of the above, part of the general Cactus mission, or not sufficiently novel to merit publication or separate enumeration.

Ground team: Mark Horvath, Charis Houston, Devon Marshall, Seth Dickerson

Full list of high-level support (addendum): Alex Antunes, Angela Walters, Rishabh Maharaja, Marcel Mabsen, Patrick Stakem, Alan Cudmore, Dave McComas, Suzanne Strege, Alison Evans, Cinnamon Wright

Full list of students (addendum): Pierce Smith, Ryan Shrenk, Nathan Weideman, Mark Horvath, Alec Johnson, Chris Murray, Sarah Sharpe, George Giakoumakis, Marcus Bailey, Xavier Guzman, Marissa Jagernath, Chukwuma Odigwe, Keegan Moore, Zack Richard, Jamil Ahmed, Gary Visser, Joshua Joseph, Eric Ruthier, Sean Mullin, Christina Williams, Nick Aiello, Randy Powell, Mikus Bormanis, Christel Gesterling, Zalika Dixon, Mike Stritmatter, Josh Hernendez, Ralph Stormer III, Dan Whiteside, Bryce Reese, Charis Houston, Devon Marshall, Seth Dickerson, and others.

uploaded July 2019, updated Dec 2020