Feasibility analysis of a CubeSat for a space weather mission in deep space

The thesis, drawn up in collaboration with the Italian aerospace company Argotec, discusses the feasibility study of a deep space weather mission through the use of a CubeSat platform.The first chapter consists of an introduction to the mission, presenting its main scientific and technological objectives. In the second chapter the discussion moves to a description of the activity of the system engineer, of the main tools used such as the Valispace software, fundamental in the design phase for the implementation of aspects such as requirements. The chapter concludes with a description of the trade-off methodology used within the project. The third chapter presents some aspects of the mission analysis investigated during the thesis process, such as the choice of the final orbit, the investigation of the available launch opportunities, the selection of a carrier and the best transfer strategy that can be adopted. The process of writing and reviewing the requirements is the main issue of the fourth chapter, where there is a focus on the major critical issues addressed during the HENON project regarding the scope of mission, system and subsystem requirements. The fifth chapter illustrates the process of selecting, through trade-offs, the main platform subsystems. The last chapters focus on the definition of the two system budgets addressed in the thesis (mass and the power budget), and on the presentation of a preliminary configuration of the platform as a result of the choices made during the study.