The ITASAT – The Lessons Learned from the Mission Concept to the Operation

The ITASAT Project was initiated as an effort of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) and the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) to train human resources to the Aerospace sector due to the lack of experience of the students in practical projects in the aerospace segment in Brazil. In this effort students were challenged to design, build and operate a satellite in a hands-on project. Along the project years several changes happened on the satellite configuration, going through a 100 kg satellite to a 6U CubeSat and this last configuration was designed, assembled and tested. In December ITASAT was launched and since its launch has been tracked and operated by the ground operation team. In this paper we will discuss the lessons learned during the project, since the decision to change the satellite size and re-thinking the scope of the project objectives, focusing on system engineering, Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT), Verification and Validation (V&V) and ground operations. The paper will present the challenges of the group of students in this hands-on project, the mistakes and hits along the project phases

The ITA Space Center and Its Role in Space Education in Brazil

This paper presents the ITA Space Center and its mission in the formation of human resources and in the research and development of space products. In 2012 the first aerospace engineers were graduated at ITA, and since then many efforts have been done to improve the engineering education. The first effort was the development of AESP-14 CubeSat project, then the development and launch of ITASAT, a 6U CubeSat. These two projects showed that small satellites projects provide a good learning approach once students were deeply involved in the development process. These two projects opened the opportunity for the creation of the ITA Space Center (CEI -acronym for Centro Espacial ITA in Portuguese). Inside its facilities the ITA Space Center provides capabilities for the development of small space projects such as electronics, software engineering, mechanical design, and simulation with the aid of systems engineering and project management. By means of the graduate and undergraduate programs the ITA Space Center is providing education and integration with the industries and other partner organizations. In developing and delivering space products, and fostering higher education in space, the ITA Space Center is accomplishing of its proposed mission