Sato, Lidia Hissae Shibuya, Costa, Luis Eduardo Vergueiro Loures da, Fulindi, Jonas Bianchini, Santos, Helio André dos, Paula, Linélcio dos Santos, Oliveira, Emerson Henrique Silva de, Azevedo, Jéssica Garcia de, Crucioli, Breno Aparecido, Vieira, Denis Guilgim, Carrara, Valdemir, di Iorio Jeronymo, Ana Carolina, Januzi, Rafael Barbosa, Makita, Daniel Hideaki, dos Santos, Willer Gomes, de Albuquerque, Pedro Kukulka, and Mattiello-Francisco, Maria de Fátima
The ITASAT Project was initiated as an effort of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) and the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) to train human resources to the Aerospace sector due to the lack of experience of the students in practical projects in the aerospace segment in Brazil. In this effort students were challenged to design, build and operate a satellite in a hands-on project. Along the project years several changes happened on the satellite configuration, going through a 100 kg satellite to a 6U CubeSat and this last configuration was designed, assembled and tested. In December ITASAT was launched and since its launch has been tracked and operated by the ground operation team. In this paper we will discuss the lessons learned during the project, since the decision to change the satellite size and re-thinking the scope of the project objectives, focusing on system engineering, Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT), Verification and Validation (V&V) and ground operations. The paper will present the challenges of the group of students in this hands-on project, the mistakes and hits along the project phases.