The unisat program: Lessons learned and achieved results

The Group of Astrodynamics of University of Roma "La Sapienza" (GAUSS) established the UNISAT program at the Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale of the University of Roma "La Sapienza". It is an educational project for designing, manufacturing and operating in orbit small microsatellites. The main goal of the UNISAT program is the education, with the aim of the participation of the students in all the phases of a real space program, from the initial mission concept to the operations in orbit. There is a strict time constraint on the mission development, which must fit in the two years didactical plan of the students. In the framework of this project four microsatellite have already been launched from Baikonour cosmodrome using the DNEPR launch vehicle, and UNISAT-4 is scheduled to be launched on May 2006. The program has now achieved an experience of several years, in which the methods of hands-on education have been employed, along with traditional class teaching, to improve the students skills. Many program organization issues have been faced in these years, to improve and verify the didactical effectiveness of the teaching method followed. The paper describes briefly the program, focussing on the didactical aspects and describing the direct experience of some students, involved in the design of the satellite subsystems. Other goal of the UNISAT program is testing in orbit and space qualifying the terrestrial off the shelf commercial and industrial components and technologies, yielding a direct technological interest for the industries and contributing to keep low the program cost and affordable for the University research budget. The main microsatellite subsystems are described in this paper, showing the students contribution to the program and their involvement in the decision process of the design, manufacturing and testing. The design process includes the realization of a virtual "digital mock-up" of the satellite, in which all the parts are simulated to verify dimensions, fitting conflicts, and weight distributions. The electronic boards have been completely designed by the students. A significant effort has been devoted to the ground station automation, including remote operation by accredited users. In particular high school students are involved in an education program for space culture diffusion among young people.