Abstract:

The design and implementation of CubeSAT projects are considered some of the best ways to reach experience in the aerospace science and technology fields for academic institutions. They become a reach platform to increase the interest of students to develop collaboration, investigation, hands on and many other skills and competences. Most of them use radio amateur frequencies to promote the radio amateur engagement and activities. This paper describes the research and experiences in the design of a real academic CubeSAT with amateur bands and the long and troublesome licensing process. The fundamental concepts and design modules of a CubeSAT are explained to understand the specific parameters of the real CubeSAT, focusing in the necessary telecommunication protocols, link budget, antenna radiation patterns, ground station and space station requirements as well as the basic steps to obtain the licensing from the Mexican Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, the International Telecommunications Union and the International Amateur Radio Union, in order to help future similar projects to achieve an easier design and licensing process.

Keywords:

Telecommunications, satellite, protocols, orbital resources.