MiniMIST- A Model Satellite For Teaching STEM Skills

Sammanfattning: Satellites are evolving around the globe, expanding our possibility to explore space and many other applications. This thesis project is a model satellite used for teaching purposes in the course IE120V Electronics and Programming for Space Applications provided at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The model can be used to teach Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in high school. The satellite is inspired by the MIniature Student saTellite (MIST) project carried out by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and hence this project will be called ”MiniMIST.” The MiniMIST aims to perform functions carried out on practical satellites. The onboard computer performs real-time image capturing, reads temperature from the surroundings, and analyzes power from solar panels and the power supply (batteries). The ground station setup is used to communicate with the satellite (MiniMIST) and receive data to be viewed and analyzed. The ESP32-Wrover was used as the main computer to run the MiniMIST. It was programmed with MicroPython and C++. Client-server communication using HTTP protocol emulated the communication between the ground station and MiniMIST with Web-Server communication. The ground station is a web page programmed using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript along with the AJAX framework. The thesis aims to build a working prototype of MiniMIST by dividing it into three sections: Hardware design, onboard computer software, and ground station software.