Sedsat-1 Lessons Learned

ABSTRACT A number of universities have initiated small scientific satellite projects in which students take the primary roles of investigators, managers, designers, and fabricators. The University of Alabama in Huntsville's SEDSAT-1 project is among them. SEDSAT-1 is manifested on the July, 1998 Delta II launch as a secondary payload (the JPL DS-1 mission is the primary). Although not yet launched, the SEDSAT-1 project has yielded numerous lessons learned for small satellite programs. Some of these, such as the critical importance of tightly defined and controlled mission scope, are well known. But others are more specific to university student satellites, such as the tradeoffs in cost and educational value of proto-flight versus qualification unit approaches. This paper discusses the primary lessons learned and methods suggested for mitigating the identified risks and problems. Included are the outlines of project templates, both in system architecture and organizational structure, to help guide future projects.