Things get critical for CubeSat teams

Four of the six student teams from the Fly Your Satellite! programme have travelled to ESTEC to find out what it takes to get their CubeSat through the Critical Design Review (CDR). It is indeed a critical moment in their project. The review process evaluates the overall quality of the CubeSat design to confirm that it is suitable to meet the technical and programmatic requirements.

The CDR workshop took place between 4 and 8 December with more than 30 students and professors from the four teams in attendance. Throughout the week each team conducted one-on-one meetings with 14 ESA specialists from different areas of expertise. The experts carefully reviewed the team’s design data package and discussed the points for improvement. By following similar methods usually adopted in ESA review processes for large missions, the students became familiar with the standard practice in a professional environment, while further increasing the chance for mission success of their CubeSats.