ALBASAT FMEA: what is FMEA and the ALBASAT case of study

CubeSats are nanosatellites that emerged from the desire to provide skills in designing a space system to students. Alba CubeSat is a University of Padova student team that aims to design, build, test, launch, and operate a two-unit (2U) CubeSat. The team has been selected by the European Space agency (ESA) to join the Fly Your Satellite! Design Booster programme. The satellite that the team is developing is called AlbaSat. It has four different payloads: (1) an Impact sensor that aims to collect data regarding the sub-mm debris environment in low earth orbit, (2) a micro-vibrations sensor that has the goal of measuring the micro-vibration environment of the satellite, (3) a number of Corner Cube Retroreflectors to determine the orbit and attitude of the satellite and (4) a Modulating Retro Reflector to evaluate new strategies for Quantum Ground Station validation. During the development of a space mission it is necessary to evaluate the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) of the system. FMEA is a method that helps to increase the reliability of a system. It serves to locate, organize and highlight the possible system failures and to prevent or mitigate them. In this thesis a preliminary FMEA analysis is performed on AlbaSat. The FMEA for this case of study is limited only to the space segment and is performed by identifying the: failure mode, failure effects, severity of the effect and the possible preventive measures. The results obtained from this thesis work are beneficial for the project since they identify the possible failure of the system and their effect on it, hence they suggest what areas of the system need improvement.