Distribute temperature, humidity, and pressure sensors across the spacecraft to map thermal gradients through sunlight and eclipse transitions. Validate thermal models and provide environmental telemetry for all other payload experiments.
Distribute temperature, humidity, and pressure sensors across the spacecraft to map thermal gradients through sunlight and eclipse transitions. Validate thermal models and provide environmental telemetry for all other payload experiments.
This is a beginner-level project with an estimated timeline of 6-10 months using a 0.5U form factor.
Temperature is the most basic and most important environmental parameter on a spacecraft. Every component has a temperature range within which it operates correctly, and thermal design is one of the core engineering disciplines in satellite development. Yet many student teams treat thermal monitoring as an afterthought, placing a single temperature sensor somewhere on the board and hoping for the best. This project does thermal monitoring properly distributing sensors across the spacecraft structure to build a complete picture of how temperatures evolve through sunlight and eclipse transitions, vary between internal and external surfaces, and respond to power cycling of different subsystems. The resulting thermal map validates the analytical and simulation models that the team used during design, revealing where predictions were accurate and where reality diverged. This data also provides essential context for every other experiment on the satellite you cannot interpret radiation sensor data, battery performance, or camera image quality without knowing the thermal conditions at the time. The simplicity of the hardware makes this an ideal entry point for new team members, providing meaningful hands-on experience within a single semester while producing data that every other payload team on the satellite will use.
4-6 BME280 sensors (temperature/humidity/pressure, I2C, ~$10 each) and TMP117 high-accuracy thermometers (±0.1°C, I2C, ~$5 each) distributed across spacecraft structure top face, bottom face, battery pack, solar panel back, PCB center, enclosure wall. Simple I2C daisy-chain to payload MCU. Sample every 10-60 seconds, store time-tagged readings with eclipse/sunlight flag derived from sun sensor or orbital model. Minimal firmware perfect first CircuitPython project for freshman team members.
Nearly every student CubeSat includes thermal monitoring making this an ideal first-year introductory project or supplementary experiment layered under a more ambitious primary payload. Data validates thermal models (COMSOL/Ansys) used in spacecraft design courses. Provides environmental telemetry context for all other payload experiments (e.g., correlate memory bit-flips with temperature, radiation sensor response with thermal cycling). Cost: $100-$300 the absolute cheapest payload option. Complexity: low. Can be built and tested in a single semester. Represents the absolute simplest payload possible.
This project spans 3 disciplines, making it suitable for interdisciplinary student teams.
Ready to take on this project? Here's a general roadmap that applies to most CubeSat missions:
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