Design and development of AlbaSat satellite operation

AlbaSat is a 2U CubeSat equipped with four payloads, designed by the AlbaCubeSat UniPD student team with the support of the European Space Agency within the Fly Your Satellite programme. This thesis work develops the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for the mission. It begins by introducing mission analysis the motivations for the selection of a 500km Sun-synchronous Orbit. It then describes four mission phases (LEOP, Commissioning, Routine and Disposal) and five operational modes (Off, Activation, Safe, Detumble and Nominal). Subsequently, the mission planning concept is presented, outlining the satellite’s repetitive operational approach and the strategy for planning operations throught a Mission Planning System developed using Matlab. Finally, the operational procedures are delineated, and an initial series of operational simulations are executed using a Simulink model of the cubesat, validating the CONOPS through the positive power and data budgets resulted from the simulations.