Possible Applications Of The “Broglio Balance” For Aeronomy Experiments On Board University Nanosatellites

The mission design and key features of UNICubeSat are described in the paper, highlighting the payload, the satellite subsystems, and expected results. The UNICubesat mission goal is the in situ measurement of the neutral atmospheric density, which is made possible by the low perigee altitude of the expected orbit (VEGA Maiden Flight orbit). The experiment is performed using a revised version of the Broglio Drag Balance instrument, used in the five San Marco satellites, built, launched and operated by Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale in cooperation with NASA from 1963 to 1988. All of the UniCubesat key components, such as solar arrays, batteries, communications and on board data handling are developed on the heritage of the four UNISAT satellites, designed, built and launched by the GAUSS team at Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale in the last decade. The SPIV ground station, located in Rome, Italy, at the Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale and currently used for UNISAT-3 operations, will be the main ground station for the UNICubesat mission. The satellite electronics subsystems are based on commercial off the shelf components and are currently under development. The revised drag balance instrument has been designed and the hardware procurement phase already started.