specifications;finally the students prepare the test reports and fill a requirements validation matrix. Each subsystem
is verified individually before assembling it with the previously verified modules and performing an integrated verification. Once all modules have been tested and assembled,the complete satellite is tested in its final configuration.
The groups have to work as a team and organize each of their members’ tasks in order to ensure an efficient use of
time and resources, and the proper level of safety; the latter is supported by a lecturer monitoring their work.
Students are able to get in close contact with practical aspects of satellite design, development and operation:
(i) They are able to see, use and perform a series of tests and measurements on a functioning satellite and its
components. This allows them to get familiar with satellite components and their performances, as well as with laboratory test equipment and procedures.
(ii) They are able to communicate with the satellite and gain experience with some of the capabilities and limitations related to remote operation and monitoring.
(iii) They get a first hands-on contact with integration and verification activities as they are performed in space
industry (within the limitations imposed by the demonstrator satellite itself, by the laboratory environment and by organizational aspects such as duration of the lessons and number of students); these activities have a big impact in the overall cost of a satellite project and are usually not well understood when studied only from a theoretical perspective.