This document serves as a place to allow members new to UW Orbital to get an insight into CubeSats in general, as well as a high-level overview of team organization and progress. Feel free to review our Recruitment Meeting presentation for a visual guide as you read through this document.
If you'd like to join the team, please ping a subteam lead on Discord.
<aside> 💡 If you’re ever lost reading some of the terms in this onboarding, or during a conversation at a meeting, a useful resource to refer to is: Terms and Acronyms.
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UW Orbital is a new design team at the University of Waterloo (created April 2021) aiming to launch a CubeSat (dubbed Eternium-III) created by UW students via the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC). You can read more about the team’s mission here: Mission, Vision, & Culture.
The team is a successor to the old WatSat team which participated in the same competition, and ran from 2010-2018 before dissolving. Many of the old team's resources are available in the form of GrabCAD models and the Google Drive, which is linked in the "Resources" section within the UW Orbital Drive.
UW Orbital recently won first place in the CSDC-6 (2021-2023)! This was our first competition and we are so proud of everyone on the team who contributed to our win.
CubeSats are low-cost alternatives to traditional multi-million dollar satellite projects, allowing for more rapid prototyping, and providing a route through which smaller organizations like student teams can get involved in the space industry.
CubeSats come in a range of standard sizes, the smallest being 1U, a 10cm x 10cm x 10cm satellite. Other sizes, such as 3U and 6U, have form factors that are multiples of the 1U (e.g. 3U form is 10cm x 10cm x 30cm).
Image Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Depiction-of-the-most-typical-CubeSat-sizes-1U-2U-3U-image-courtesy-of-Clyde-Space_fig1_286288134
The CubeSat that UW Orbital is designing will be a 3U, as per CSDC requirements. CubeSats often hitch rides along with larger satellites, so the launch costs associated with a 3U are roughly $200K instead of millions of dollars. Once the main satellite has deployed, CubeSats are often released via a "dispenser", which includes a spring that pushes and releases the satellite once a signal is sent to the dispenser to open its hatch. Dispensers are provided by launch providers, and often covered under launch costs. In rare cases, satellites are sometimes launched from the International Space Station, via an astronaut that throws the satellite into orbit.
UW Orbital participates in a Canada-wide competition known as the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC). The competition is organized by a non-profit that aims to educate and get university students involved in the space industry by involving them in a two-year-long CubeSat competition. The CSDC helps fund the winning team's launch and ground station equipment costs. Note that CubeSat "dispensers" are often provided by the launch provider, and covered under launch costs.
The competition operates on a 2 year timeline that includes a "Preliminary Design Review" and "Critical Design Review", meant to mimic actual development processes in the space industry. The current offering (CSDC-7) runs from September 2023 to May 2025.
At the end of the competition, teams must pass a series of environmental tests, including a Vibration Test, where the CubeSat is placed on a shaker bed to simulate a launch environment. The CubeSat must also undergo an Outgassing Test, where it is placed in a high heat, low pressure environment and dissolved gasses are allowed to evaporate out of the satellite. CubeSats are generally launched "piggyback" with a larger, more expensive payload. If outgassing occurs during the launch phase, it could cause what are known as Rapid Unscheduled Disassemblies in the rocket industry. For this reason, and to simulate Low Earth Orbit (LEO) environments, outgassing tests are critical.
Key deadlines including the PDR and CDR can be seen below. *note this is from last competition but the date placement remains the same