Join the EPFL Spacecraft Team! 

Do you want to take part in the biggest, student-led Swiss space mission?

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Gain experience on real projects

Apply theory into practice

Develop your skills in leadership and project management

Work on an ambitious project

Kickstart your career as an engineer

Develop your network by meeting professionals in the industry

What matters is not only what you currently know, it's what you are willing to learn.

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Motivation, curiosity, autonomy and proactivity are essential for us.

What are you interested in?

  Technical  

System Engineering

Partnership coordinator

Type of project: Association Participants: 3 students Section: Any Description: Funding a multi-million space mission is not an easy task. Private sponsoring plays an important part of this project to be launched. Tasks:

  • Design a sponsorship proposal
  • Investigate new sponsoring opportunities
  • Maintain relationships with external companies who are interested in sponsoring us.
  • Come up with your own ideas
Preferred background courses:
  • Soft skills



Power System

Power system engineer

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 4 students Section: STI Description: After extensive research and simulations on CHESS’s power generation and consumption, a COTS EPS has been selected and should be in our hands by February 2021. Being a vital element to the system, it is important to test the board, the batteries and the solar panel deployment system to make sure everything is well configured and ready to fly. You’ll be in touch with all of the other subsystems to try and simulate their power needs and test if the board and batteries distribute energy correctly and efficiently. Finally an estimation of State of Charge for the batteries should be made to ensure that the system lasts the full 2 years of the Mission. Tasks:

  • Estimate State of Charge of Batteries for Battery monitoring
  • Finalize and Confirm Power simulations
  • Test the Power Distribution Board of the EPS
  • Test the Batteries of on the EPS
  • Discussions and work with the rest of the team to keep the system up to date
Preferred background courses:
  • microcontrollers, electronic basis, coding skills (mainly for programming microcontrollers, C/C++)



Attitude Determination & Control System (ADCS)

Power system engineer

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 4 students Section: STI Description: After extensive research and simulations on CHESS’s power generation and consumption, a COTS EPS has been selected and should be in our hands by February 2021. Being a vital element to the system, it is important to test the board, the batteries and the solar panel deployment system to make sure everything is well configured and ready to fly. You’ll be in touch with all of the other subsystems to try and simulate their power needs and test if the board and batteries distribute energy correctly and efficiently. Finally an estimation of State of Charge for the batteries should be made to ensure that the system lasts the full 2 years of the Mission. Tasks:

  • Estimate State of Charge of Batteries for Battery monitoring
  • Finalize and Confirm Power simulations
  • Test the Power Distribution Board of the EPS
  • Test the Batteries of on the EPS
  • Discussions and work with the rest of the team to keep the system up to date
Preferred background courses:
  • microcontrollers, electronic basis, coding skills (mainly for programming microcontrollers, C/C++)



Structure

Concept of Operations development

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 2 - 4 students Section: STI, Minor in Space Tech Description: The Concept of Operations (CONOPS) is what defines how the satellite will work after the launch at the system level. This is a crucial part of the mission as it states what will be the time sequence of the operations and what to do in case of a failure. The CONOPS has been started the last semesters but it has to be precisely refined in order to be fully operational for the mission. Tasks:

  • Finalizing the CONOPS
  • Implement it in Valispace (MBSE tool)
  • Duty cycles analysis
  • Power, Data, Mass budgets determination



Flight Software

Concept of Operations development

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 2 - 4 students Section: STI, Minor in Space Tech Description: The Concept of Operations (CONOPS) is what defines how the satellite will work after the launch at the system level. This is a crucial part of the mission as it states what will be the time sequence of the operations and what to do in case of a failure. The CONOPS has been started the last semesters but it has to be precisely refined in order to be fully operational for the mission. Tasks:

  • Finalizing the CONOPS
  • Implement it in Valispace (MBSE tool)
  • Duty cycles analysis
  • Power, Data, Mass budgets determination



On-Board-Computer (OBC)

Power system engineer

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 4 students Section: STI Description: After extensive research and simulations on CHESS’s power generation and consumption, a COTS EPS has been selected and should be in our hands by February 2021. Being a vital element to the system, it is important to test the board, the batteries and the solar panel deployment system to make sure everything is well configured and ready to fly. You’ll be in touch with all of the other subsystems to try and simulate their power needs and test if the board and batteries distribute energy correctly and efficiently. Finally an estimation of State of Charge for the batteries should be made to ensure that the system lasts the full 2 years of the Mission. Tasks:

  • Estimate State of Charge of Batteries for Battery monitoring
  • Finalize and Confirm Power simulations
  • Test the Power Distribution Board of the EPS
  • Test the Batteries of on the EPS
  • Discussions and work with the rest of the team to keep the system up to date
Preferred background courses:
  • microcontrollers, electronic basis, coding skills (mainly for programming microcontrollers, C/C++)



Telecommunication

Ground station emulation vhf/uhf communication

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 2 - 3 students Section: Elec, STI, others Description: Telecommand and telemetry data between the satellite and the ground station is provided via a vhf/uhf radiolink. An emulation of the ground station is required to test the satellite terminal. Within the scope of this work, the functions of a simple ground station are to be implemented on the basis of a commercially available SDR hardware. Tasks: Your task is to develop and implement the TC/TM modem functionality on the ground station side. In particular, the following focal points are to be worked on:

  • Definition of the TC/TM protocol commands in consultation with the project partners concerned .
  • Implementation and test of a suitable GUI application for the local generation of TC commands and the decoding of received TM commands.
  • Implementation and test of the channel coding for the uplink and downlink radio channels according to project requirements. channel according to project requirements.
Preferred background and skills:
  • Matlab, Gnu Radio advantageous
  • Soft skills



Baseband electronics for X-band communication terminal

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 1 students Section: Elec, STI, others Description: A radiolink in the 10 GHz range is provided for the transmission of scientific data. For the transmitter part on the satellite side, the baseband electronics will be designed and built as a prototype. Tasks: In particular, the following focal points need to be worked on:

  • Familiarise yourself with the project
  • Identify and describe function blocks for baseband signal processing.
  • Evaluate commercially available components
  • Prototype and characterise key functions (e.g. modulation)
Preferred background and skills:
  • System simulation with AWR Design software advantageous
  • Soft skills



Power amplifier for x-band (10 GHz)

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 1 students Section: Elec, STI, others Description: The transmitting unit in the satellite requires a power amplifier for a frequency in the range of 10 GHz. The design should be based on components that are not subject to export restrictions by the USA. Within the scope of the semester project, an amplifier design is to be built and tested with the help of the supplier's specifications. Tasks: In particular, the following focal points need to be worked on:

  • Familiarise yourself with the project
  • Identify and describe the functional blocks for power amplification
  • Evaluate commercially available components
  • Prototype and characterise key functions (e.g. driver, pa)
Preferred background and skills:
  • System simulation with AWR Design software advantageous
  • Soft skills



Mission Design

Concept of Operations development

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 2 - 4 students Section: STI, Minor in Space Tech Description: The Concept of Operations (CONOPS) is what defines how the satellite will work after the launch at the system level. This is a crucial part of the mission as it states what will be the time sequence of the operations and what to do in case of a failure. The CONOPS has been started the last semesters but it has to be precisely refined in order to be fully operational for the mission. Tasks:

  • Finalizing the CONOPS
  • Implement it in Valispace (MBSE tool)
  • Duty cycles analysis
  • Power, Data, Mass budgets determination



  Management  

Sponsoring

Partnership coordinator

Type of project: Association Participants: 3 students Section: Any Description: Funding a multi-million space mission is not an easy task. Private sponsoring plays an important part of this project to be launched. Tasks:

  • Design a sponsorship proposal
  • Investigate new sponsoring opportunities
  • Maintain relationships with external companies who are interested in sponsoring us.
  • Come up with your own ideas
Preferred background courses:
  • Soft skills



Communication

Concept of Operations development

Type of project: Semester project / Association Participants: 2 - 4 students Section: STI, Minor in Space Tech Description: The Concept of Operations (CONOPS) is what defines how the satellite will work after the launch at the system level. This is a crucial part of the mission as it states what will be the time sequence of the operations and what to do in case of a failure. The CONOPS has been started the last semesters but it has to be precisely refined in order to be fully operational for the mission. Tasks:

  • Finalizing the CONOPS
  • Implement it in Valispace (MBSE tool)
  • Duty cycles analysis
  • Power, Data, Mass budgets determination