CSUT and ONERA’s CREME: a student cubesat dedicated to radiation belt modeling and space weather

CSUT (Centre Spatial Universitaire de Toulouse) is a cluster of academic and research institutions, created in June 2016 with the aim to provide training by practice to students (engineers or technicians) through the development of collaborative nanosatellite projects. These students are involved during every phase of the projects, from mission analysis and system specification to on-orbit operations and data analysis.

CREME (Cubesat for Radiation Environment Monitoring Experiment) was proposed as one of the potential missions for ONERA’s ONSAT-1 project, which aim at launching ONERA’s first cubesat in 2022. Its main technological objective is on-orbit demonstration of a miniaturized radiation monitor on a 3U cubesat. While ONERA is in charge of mission design and building the cubesat’s payload, CSUT was proposed as a partner to build the platform as well as manage integration and testing at satellite and system level.

The platform is based on generic “COTS” avionics and also integrates in-house deployment mechanisms to deploy solar panels. The ground segment will include a control center located at ISAE-SUPAERO where on-orbit operations will occur. Integration phases are also expected to take place at ISAE-SUPAERO, which available facilities will allow satellite environment testing and system qualification.

The presentation will focus on CREME objectives, mission analysis, system and satellite architecture, and overall development plan.