Mission Design and Enabling Technologies for a LEO-to-MEO Dual-Phase CubeSat Mission: The BOREALIS Platform

BOREALIS – Biofilm Onboard Radiation Exposure Assessment Lab In Space – is a 6U CubeSat mission developed under the Italian Space Agency’s ALCOR program. It introduces a dual-phase orbital profile enabling biological experimentation in both Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), making BOREALIS one of the first CubeSat missions to attempt a LEO-to-MEO orbital transfer. This paper focuses on the mission’s engineering innovations that make this transfer feasible, particularly the propulsion subsystem based on a water-fueled pulsed plasma thruster and the Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS), validated through numerical and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) experiments. Conducted in collaboration between the School of Aerospace Engineering of Rome and the University of Arizona, the tests demonstrated that a commercial ADCS can maintain sub-degree pointing during long-duration thrust operations when integrated within a closed-loop Simulink environment.