The University of Southern Maine Cubesat Design Competition (UCDC 2023) invites grade 6-12 students from across Maine to conceptualize, plan and build an original payload design meeting the UCDC mission objectives and compete for the “Maine Cube Cup” trophy. The design competition, funded by NASA, the Maine Space Grant Consortium, and supported by the USM Maker Innovation Studio (MIST) and MaxIQ, challenges student teams to collaboratively perform complex engineering tasks under constraints to spur creativity and gain experience in the engineering design process thereby preparing them for college and/or career placement in a STEM field. UCDC aims to reach 6-12 grade school students from multiple educational preparedness levels. Groups 6-8 and 9-12 will be judged separately.
The competition aims to:
- Engage students in STEM experiential learning and consider future careers within the space industry
- Increase student confidence in STEM through problem solving within a real space mission experience
- Allow students to develop and practice soft career skills, such as teamwork, leadership and project management
- Bolster the cubesat research and development work being undertaken within the Maine space industry.
Cubesat Design Competition 2022
Competition Specifications
This year’s challenge is to design a payload system for a 1U cubesat that can perform a science or technology based mission of your choosing. The designs must meet the following basic mission requirements.
- Must meet the 1U cubesat design volume form factor of 10cm X 10cm X 10cm (61 in3)
- Must weigh less than 1 kg (2.2 lbs.)
- Must include its own on-board power
- Must contain an externally actuated electrical power switch
- Must survive a fall from 3 feet (0.91 m) in earth’s gravity
- Must be capable of operating in conditions up to 90,000 feet (27.7 km)
- Must be water resistant in case of a water landing
- Must be constructed with a total cost less than $700
- Must have clearly identified and measureable mission objectives to judge success.
The competition registrants are judged on the overall quality of submitted design packets, creativity and uniqueness of the chosen missions and anticipated benefits to the scientific and engineering communities.
Registration and Team Specifications
Registration
Entry into UCDC is free to all participants. Each team must register following the instructions and forms outlined on the competition webpage. Registration is open starting October 1, 2022 and closes on December 23, 2022.
Each registering team will receive the following:
- A commemorative 1U cubesat chassis required for use during the competition.
- An Arduino microcontroller and sensor kit.
- Enrollment into the virtual USM cubesat development workshop series providing instruction into the design and operation of spacecraft systems including computer-aided design, programming, communications, wiring basics and mission planning.
- An assigned USM mentor to provide technical resources and guidance on the project.
- A commemorative USM cubesat tee-shirt.
To register and receive your cubesat starter kit: Complete the online registration form.
Team Specifications
Teams must consist of at least one student and one teacher (or parent) from their respective educational institutions. The teacher (or parent) must have the support of the educational institution for organizing afterschool activities and in-State travel.There are no limits on maximum team size. Each school can have more than one team. Teams may work with external consultants on any aspects of their design
USM competition leaders will provide teams with fundamentals of cubesat background informational sessions as well as provide each team a Mentor to help overcome any non-student deliverable issues. All contributing team members should be credited on the team roster, which is submitted with the project.
The competition is separated into two main phases:
Phase A) Research & design phase, and
Phase B) Build, test and launch phase.
Phase A
The research & design phase begins January 13, 2023. A competition kick-off event will be held via zoom to welcome all the participants and motivate the competition. During this phase of the competition, teams will identify a science or technology mission for the competition and work with their USM mentor to conceptualize, develop and detail their designs for Phase A judging. Conceptual design packets are due to judges by March 3, 2023. Four finalists from each grade group will be selected to progress to the build & test phase. Below are specifications required of the conceptual design package to be submitted for judging.
- Preliminary Detailed Design: Teams will create an initial concept for their cubesat payload according to their mission objectives. This stage is expected to last six weeks and concludes with the preliminary design mission proposal. Teams may submit their design concept documentation to USM for feedback. The format of presentation of this work is left up to the individual team members.
- Final Detailed Design: Teams will modify/improve their preliminary designs from the previous stage, taking into account any new design decisions and reviewer feedback. The final detailed proposal will include payload conceptual design, description of operation, compliance with mission specifications and justification for award. Final proposals are submitted to the external review panel for judging. An additional six weeks will be provided for this effort. This detailed proposal will follow these guidelines:
- A mission title
- Team members and responsibilities
- 200 word executive summary
- 2000 word full proposal that explains:
- Mission Problem Statement
- Mission Objectives
- Team Roles and Responsibilities
- Conceptual Design
- Operational Details
- On-board power details
- Data recording
- Mission execution procedure
- Budget including a bill of materials (BoM)
- Compliance
- Scientific Merit
During the conceptual design phase of the competition, teams are provided semi-monthly virtual workshops on various aspects of cubesat mission planning, the engineering design process, satellite communications, space physics, computer-aided design, computer programming, etc. The virtual workshops will be posted on Saturday mornings. Each recording will contain approximately three hours of content.
Phase B
Finalists advancing from Phase A will be notified by March 10, 2023 of their invitation to Phase B. The build and test phase will immediately begin after finalist notifications. USM will procure the hardware specified in the finalist’s design package and send directly to the participants. Finalist teams will have four months to complete the build and test of their devices ahead of the scheduled high altitude balloon launch on Saturday May 27, 2023 (with a rain date of May 28, 2023). During this time, finalists will be invited to the University of Southern Maine’s Maker Innovation Studio (MIST) to work directly with USM personnel to construct, program, test and certify the operation of their cubesat prior to launch.
Launch location is weather dependent. Preference is given to the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College. On launch day, teams will report on location with their pre-fabricated cubesats. They will be interviewed by the external panel of judges prior to launch. Participants are allowed one week to process and analyze their recovered mission data for submission to competition judges.
The submissions are judged first on the quality, depth and rigor of the work presented and secondly by the breadth of the work in terms of topics covered. The program panel will consist of volunteer industry and academic experts.
Judging will commence in two rounds, the first round is the paper conceptual design triage round in which final design submissions will each get a 20-30 minute review from at least three judges in a closed envelope format. Judges will combine their merit (0-5) and quality (0-5) scores into an overall score (0-10). The closed envelope judge scores will be compiled and their scores tabulated. The Top 8-10 scoring submissions from the grade 6-8 and grade 9-12 groups will then move to the “semi-finalist” judge committee. The remaining applicants will be given a “successful mission” award if the applicant presented a plausible design concept, but whose work did not raise to the semi-finalist grouping.
In the “semi-finalist” round, all judges will be asked to provide a new 15-20 minute review of the remaining submissions. The judges will then go to open committee to discuss the applications. Through this process the top three teams will be awarded “Finalist” submissions for each age group and the remaining applicants will be given “semi-finalist” awards.
“Finalists” will be given a certificate and invited to participate in a build-off competition. At the conclusion of the build-off round, the judges will review the assembled cubesat designs and score the applicants on build quality, completeness and functionality of the designs. Judges will award a “best in show” for the best built cubesat. At the conclusion of the balloon launch, judges will also rank the designs on their ability to meet mission objectives. The cubesat that best achieved mission objectives will be designated the competition winner and a trophy will be awarded.
Below are a list of resources and examples of previous mission reports which may be helpful to your planning purposes.
Dave Akerman Introduction to High Altitude Ballooning
Spaceflight Mission Planning Guide
European Space Agency Technology Cubesat