Mission analysis of QB50, a nanosatellite intended to study the lower thermosphere

Abstract

QB50 is a program intended to study the lower thermosphere (320-90 km) with a network of 50 nanosatellites. QB50 is the second nanosatellite of the University of Liège, Belgium. Before QB50 it was developed OUFTI-1 within the LEODIUM Project. These satellites will be launched into a circular orbit at about 330 km altitude and an inclination of 79°. Due to the atmospheric drag, the orbit will decay and progressively lower layers of the atmosphere will be explored. The CubeSats will decay from 330 km to 90 km in approximately 98 days. In this thesis a complete analysis will be made for a double CubeSat (2U) and some results will be compared with the triple CubeSat (3U) ones. A CubeSat is a cubical satellite with a size of 10 x 10 x 10 cm and a weight of 1 kg. Finally, in this thesis it will be applied the tool STK/SEET to QB50 mission in order to predict, above all, the radiation that the satellite will receive during its lifetime. A tutorial will be made to show how this tool works.