THE TEAM

2023-2024

Avionics

The Avionics team focuses on designing, testing, and debugging the electronics of CubeSats and related lab research projects. This includes various circuit boards, radio, power systems, and command & data handling development and usage. The team also works closely with other discipline teams to provide associated systems, software, and structural design considerations.

Discipline Lead: Christopher Tinker

Assembly, Integration, and Testing

The Assembly, Integration, and Testing (AI&T) Team writes procedures for assembly and testing and then facilitates these processes. Testing can range from TVAC to vibration testing on the satellite hardware. They ensure seamless subsystem integration between components. AI&T is also responsible for risk management within the lab and ensuring other discipline teams and lab members are aware of the current risks, hazards, and proper procedures present in lab.

Discipline Leads: Jacky Hu and Gretta Thompson

Education and Outreach

To further develop CPCL’s relationship with the local community and provide more opportunities for young students to discover and interact with engineering, the lab has introduced the Education and Outreach team. The education department will focus on reaching a wide range of students of different ages and interests, with an emphasis on engineering design and applied science. The team hopes to host events and activities in the lab and visit local schools. The outreach department focuses on making new Cal Poly students aware of our lab, and engaging with industry leaders and companies.

Discipline Leads: Andrew Harper and Shane Meadows-Yaw

Ground Station and Operations

The Ground Station & Operations team is responsible for manual and automatic operations of the CPCL ground station network to communicate with satellites in orbit. They are also responsible for maintenance and upgrades on existing ground station and antenna hardware.

Discipline Leads: Marissa Ezzell

Software

The software team writes modular, reusable, and fault-tolerant code for the satellites and ground station. We develop software to receive commands, downlink data, operate the mission payload, read sensors, perform altitude changes, and ensure satellite health.

Discipline Leads: Lorenzo Pedroza and Kevin Woodman

Structures and Mechanisms

Structures and Mechanisms designs the satellite bus structures and any necessary mechanisms for the Cal Poly CubeSat Lab's flight missions and research and development projects. This includes mechanical design, design-for-manufacturing, structural analysis, and manufacturing on the manual and CNC mills in the Cal Poly Machine Shops. Some of the common software used on the S&M team is SolidWorks for CAD and mechanical drawings, Ansys for finite element analysis, and HSMWorks for CAM.

Discipline Leads: Kayla Del Rosario and Jacquelyn Banh

Systems Engineering and Analysis

The Systems Engineering & Analysis team oversees the engineering management process to ensure the right system is built and each subsystem adheres to the project requirements. The team also ensures that all components of the system are seamlessly integrated in a coherent manner. Most of our work revolves around requirement writing, ConOps development, trade studies, and analysis by using tools such as MATLAB, GMAT, and STK.

Discipline Leads: Jessica Bleakley and Vasili Gogonis

2019 - 2020

Aerospace Team

The aerospace team develops and tests the attitude determination and control systems, conducts thermal and environmental analysis, and assists in the overall mission operations and systems engineering aspect of each CubeSat.

Electrical Team

The electrical team designs and tests all electronics on our CubeSats. They specialize in high density digital and analog printed circuit board (PCB) design, which allows Cal Poly CubeSats to be as small as possible while still performing like larger satellites.

ATLO Team

ATLO team members develop innovative solutions to improve the P-POD design and assembles P-POD hardware in-house. The students exercise integration and testing procedures, qualify hardware for launch, and manage on-campus thermal vacuum, vibration, and shock test facilities.

Mechanical Team

The mechanical team is responsible for the layout, structures and deployable mechanisms for our CubeSats. The mechanical design, fabrication, and testing is completed by our student team using Cal Poly's on-campus facilities.

Software Team

The software team writes modular, reusable, and fault-tolerant code for the satellites and ground station. Team members develop software to receive commands, downlink data, operate the mission payload, read sensors, perform altitude changes, and ensure satellite health.

CubeSat Staff

The CubeSat staff advises students in both the CubeSat and PolySat programs, and provides several services to the CubeSat community outside of Cal Poly. They provide services supporting industry relations, certification & licensing, documentation, and operation.