LituanicaSAT-2: Design of the 3U in-Orbit Technology Demonstration CubeSat

Abstract

The QB50 Mission is a network of 36 CubeSats built by universities all over the world to perform first-class science in the largely unexplored thermosphere around Earth. 28 QB50 CubeSats will be launched to the International Space Station via NanoRacks LLC and deployed from the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) during Q2 of 2017. The remaining CubeSats will be deployed via an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launcher rocket as secondary payloads during Q2 of 2017 as well. LituanicaSAT-2 will be deployed with the latter group of satellites. This network of small satellites will have by no means a small mission: to carry out long-term measurements of key parameters and constituents in yet largely unexplored lower thermosphere and ionosphere. While in orbit, the satellites will slowly descend to lower and lower layers of thermosphere due to atmospheric drag, revealing the spatial and temporal distributions of the parameters measured [1].