PICPOT PROGRAM: LESSONS LEARNED

摘要

The paper describes the PiCPoT program, by means of which the satellite has been designed, developed, integrated and launched, with emphasis on the results achieved. PiCPoT has been developed by students and researchers at Politecnico di Torino, taking into account some major issues and constraints which derive from its nature of being an university satellite: educational relevance of the project and low cost system development. The main technical objective of PiCPoT has been identified in taking pictures of the Earth. To fulfil the task PiCPoT is equipped with all the necessary sub-systems which will be described in the paper. The resulting satellite is a cube which weights about 2.5 kg, able to flight a sun-synchronous circular orbit and to take and send pictures on demand when it passes over the ground station. Mechanical and functional tests have been performed in order to guarantee the fulfilment of the mission. The results of the test campaign have been satisfactory. Unfortunately, the launch resulted in a failure of the launch vehicle and PiCPoT has never reached its scheduled orbit. Notwithstanding the launch failure, PiCPoT project can be considered a success for all the participants to the program, who experienced a great value activity.