oresat-solar-simulator-hardware

The hardware repository for our solar simulator for testing OreSat 1U solar panels

General Information

The OreSat Solar Simulator is a benchtop simulator for hardware-in-the-loop testing of CubeSat solar modules. It uses LED and halogen light bulbs to emit light that simulates the sun's solar spectrum in low Earth orbit (Air Mass 0 or 'AM0').

The work for this was done as an MCECS Capstone Project from January to June of 2023 by Bendjy Faurestal, Adam Martinez, Cesar Ordaz-Coronel, and Charles Nasser. Andrew Greenberg was both representing PSAS as the Industry Sponsor and the Faculty Advisor to the students.

Hardware

Controller board top: Bottom:

The schematic and pcb layout were designed in kiCAD. The boards we used were fabricated by OSHPark in Lake Oswego, OR.

The simulators are driven by a Raspberry Pi Pico attached to the board.

Software

The software for this project lives in the oresat-solar-simulator-software repository.

Mechanical

The mechanical components were developed by Zeus Ayala using onShape.