fly your satellite!

EDUCATION CUBESATS
ON SOYUZ VS14

Info sheet

THE ESA FLY YOUR SATELLITE! PROGRAMME

Objective
ESAs Fly Your Satellite! (FYS) programme is a recurring, hands-on programme designed and managed by the
ESA Education Office in close collaboration with European Universities, with the objective to complement
academic education and inspire, engage, and better prepare university students for a more effective
introduction to their future professions in the space sector.

How the programme is conducted

During the course of the programme, the university student teams are supported in the development of their
own satellite, whose mission is conceived at their own universities, and whose development is funded by the
universities themselves and/or other national contributors.
Coordinated and guided by their university professors, the student teams are supported and mentored by
ESA specialists through different programme phases, all aiming at ensuring the satellites undergo accurate
verification before being offered a chance to fly to space.
To this end, ESA offers the CubeSat student teams access to state of the art test facilities; financial support for
travelling to participate in workshops, training, and test sessions; sponsors their participation in the launch
campaign at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana; and offers them a launch opportunity.

Learning goals
By participating in a real satellite programme, the students gain significant practical experience in the full
lifecycle of an actual space project, from designing, to manufacturing, assembling, integrating, testing,
preparing the project documentation, learning the logic of conduct of formal reviews, participating in a launch
campaign, operating their own small satellite, and preparing for its disposal in compliance with the space debris
mitigation requirements.
Under close ESA supervision, students are introduced to the working methods adopted in professional space
programmes, fundamental to facilitating a transfer of competences, and to allow the students to build their
professional skills.

The programme phases

The FYS programme consists of 4 phases. During each phase, the CubeSats student teams have to achieve predefined objectives and must undergo reviews conducted by ESA specialists. The successful completion of the
former phase is precondition to gain access to the next phase:

Build Your Satellite! satellite integration and functional tests in laboratory conditions;

Test Your Satellite! environmental tests, conducted in conditions representative of the space mission;

Ticket to Orbit! launch campaign preparation, installation in the CubeSat orbital deployer (P-POD) and
installation of deployer and CubeSats on board the launcher;

CubeSats in Space! launch and in-orbit operations.

Programme cost (present campaign)

For each individual university CubeSat: typically between 25 000 and 500 000 Euros, through national
institutional, academic and sponsorship funding.

For ESA: ESAs financial contribution covered the procurement of the launch as auxiliary payload, CubeSats
access to test facilities, cost of the ESA supervising personnel, including experts mentorship and conduct
of the ESA project reviews, as well as sponsorships to support students to travel to participate in the key
events of the programme.

EDUCATION CUBESATS ON THE SOYUZ-FREGAT VS14 FLIGHT

Three student-built CubeSats - OUFTI-1, Belgium; e-st@r-II, Italy; AAUSAT-4, Denmark - have been accepted for
launch on the Soyuz VS14 flight from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Together with CNES
MICROSCOPE scientific satellite, they will be auxiliary payload in the launch of the ESA Earth observation
satellite Sentinel 1B, the main passenger on this flight.

Oufti-1, University of Lige, Belgium

OUFTI-1 will be the first Belgian student-built satellite, the first Belgian CubeSat, the first satellite fully
conceived, built, managed and operated in Belgium, and the worlds first satellite featuring D-STAR radio
communications. It has been developed at the University of Lige (ULg), Belgium, with assistance from the
industrial engineering schools HEPL-ISIL and HELMO-Gramme, both from Lige, Belgium.
OUFTI-1 is funded nationally mainly by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and the University of Lige.
The objective of OUFTI-1 is to test its innovative payload, the D-STAR digital radio communication (sub)system;
this is a recently-developed amateur radio protocol that provides several built-in advanced features, allowing
digital communication, simultaneous voice and data transmission (e.g., GPS data and computer files), complete
routing over the internet, and roaming on a worldwide basis. OUFTI-1 will implement the first D-STAR repeater in space.
Oufti-1, University of Lige, Belgium
Spacecraft name:

OUFTI-1

Mass at launch:

920g

Dimensions:

~10cm x 10cm x 11cm

Power:

2W

Solar arrays dimension:

5 solar arrays of approx.8x8 cm (body mounted)

Mission:

Launch date:

22 April 2016

Operational orbit:

Elliptical approx. 454 x 682 km, inclination 98.2 deg (polar)

Mission lifetime:

Design: 1 year

Ground stations:

University of Lige (operated by students)

Payload:

D-STAR

Digital Smart Technology for Amateur Radio

e-st@r-II, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

e-st@r-II is part of a continuous educational programme e-st@r - established at the Politecnico of Torino,
Italy, as an effective means for educating aerospace engineering students. e-st@r-I was launched on the Vega
Maiden Flight on 12 February 2012, as part of the first ESA CubeSats programme, direct precursor of the Fly Your
Satellite! Programme. The e-st@r student team is coordinated by ASSET (AeroSpace Systems Engineering Team)
of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of Politecnico di Torino, and makes use of their
universitys System and Technologies for Aerospace Research Laboratory (STARLab).
e-st@r-II (Educational SaTellite @ politecnico di toRino - II) is self-funded nationally through the Student
Projects Grants initiative of the Politecnico di Torino.
The objective of e-st@r-II is to demonstrate autonomous active attitude determination capabilities based on
a system that makes use of the Earths magnetic field (A-ADCS). During the commissioning phase, the payload
will be deactivated, leaving the satellite in its free tumbling motion, without any attitude stabilization. The
A-ADCS will then kick-in by interacting with the Earth magnetic field in order to demonstrate it can actively
de-tumble the satellites angular velocities, and it can properly determine the satellite attitude.
e-st@r-II, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Spacecraft name:

e-st@r-II

Mass at launch:

980g

Dimensions:

~10cm x 10cm x 11cm

Power:

2.75 W

Solar arrays dimension:

5 solar arrays of approx.7x8 cm (body mounted)

Mission:

Launch date:

22 April 2016

Operational orbit:

Elliptical approx. 454 x 682 km, inclination 98.2 deg (polar)

Mission lifetime:

Minimum: 3 months

Ground stations:

Radio Amateurs, Bra, Cuneo, Italy

Payload:

A-ADCS

Active Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem

AAUSAT-4, Aalborg University, Denmark

AAUSAT-4 is part of a continuous educational programme AAUSAT established at the University of Aalborg,
Denmark. The AAUSAT-5 student-built CubeSat, based on a design very similar to AAUSAT-4, was released into
orbit from the International Space Station on 5 October 2015, also as part of the ESA FYS! Programme.
AAUSAT-4 is funded nationally by the University of Aalborg with the support of national sponsors such as
Sparnord Fonden, Sfartsstyrelsen, Printca, Marel Denmark, Hytek Aalborg (main sponsors), and Satlab ApS,
Mekoprint, Cobham, Rohde-Schwarz.
AAUSAT-4 will conduct in-orbit testing of an improved version of the Automated Identification System (AIS)
receiver, a system developed by the Aalborg students to track and identify ships and other vehicles carrying an
AIS transponder, which are transiting away from coastal areas and in remote areas, to enable safer use of new
shipping lanes.

AAUSAT-4, Aalborg University, Denmark

Spacecraft name:

AAUSAT-4

Mass at launch:

850g

Dimensions:

~10cm x 10cm x 11cm

Power:

1.5 W

Solar arrays dimension:

6 solar arrays of approx.8x8 cm (body mounted)

Mission:

Launch date:

22 April 2016

Operational orbit:

Elliptical approx. 454 x 682 km, inclination 98.2 deg (polar)

Mission lifetime:

Design: 1 year

Ground stations:

Aalborg University (operated by students)

Payload:

AIS

Automatic Identification System

THE FLY YOUR SATELLITE! PROGRAMME HISTORY

World-wide, over the past 15 years, hundreds of CubeSats have been launched. To date, the ESA Education Office
has supported 20 student CubeSats from ESA Member and Cooperating States, including:

2008-2012: 12 student-built CubeSats supported, out of which 7 launched on the Vega Maiden Flight.

2012-2013: Spanish HumSat-D student CubeSat, supported in its test campaign

2013: start of the Fly Your Satellite! Programme, with 6 CubeSats selected to participate in Phase 1 of the
Programme; three of these CubeSats OUFTI-1, e-st@r-II, AAUSAT-4 are to be launched on Soyuz VS14 on
22 April 2016.

2015: launch of AAUSAT-5 to the International Space Station, and deployment to orbit, under a dedicated
edition of the Fly Your Satellite! Programme.

THE FLY YOUR SATELLITE! PROGRAMME IN THE ESA EDUCATIONAL

CONTEXT
Fly Your Satellite! is one of the several hands-on programmes for university students offered by the ESA
Education Office. These activities are all incorporated in the recently born ESA Academy programme, which
brings together existing and new elements of the ESA Education Programme for universities. The ESA Academy
groups two interconnected pillars of activity:

Hands-on Space Projects, an existing set of programmes that enables students to gain first-hand experience
of real space-related projects. They include satellite projects, such as Fly Your Satellite! and ESEO (European
Student Earth Orbiter), as well as a number of other opportunities for student experiments projects to be
conducted on a wide variety of platforms, such as sounding rockets, stratospheric balloons, a drop tower, a
hypergravity centrifuge, and parabolic flights.

Training and Learning Programme, a new initiative offering an entirely new and varied portfolio of courses
given by space experts and professionals coming from all fields of ESAs expertise, as well as from space
industry and academia.

In addition to providing access to existing ESA establishments and partners infrastructures, the ESA Academy
makes use of new dedicated facilities located at ESAs Redu Centre in Belgium. The Training and Learning Centre,
which started courses in March 2016, and the CubeSat Education Centre will become operational in 2017.

USEFUL LINKS & CONTACT INFO

ESAs Fly Your Satellite! programme: www.esa.int/Education/CubeSats_-_Fly_Your_Satellite
ESA Academy programme: www.esa.int/Education/The_ESA_Academy_is_born
ESA Education programme: www.esa.int/education
ESA Education on Facebook: esa education
Fly Your Satellite! image gallery: www.flickr.com/photos/esa_events/albums/72157666846587125
Monica Talevi, monica.talevi@esa.int

OUFTI-1
www.oufti-1.be
oufti1cubesat
@UniversiteLiege, #Oufti1Go
Xavier Werner, x.werner@ulg.ac.be

e-st@r-II
www.polito.it/cubesat-team
CubeSat Team
@CubeSatTeam
Sabrina Corpino, sabrina.corpino@polito.it

AAUSAT-4
space.aau.dk/aausat4
aaustudentspace
@aauteknat
Jens Dalsgaard Nielsen, jdn@es.aau.dk

www.esa.int/education
esa education
@esa__education
8