Development of a Low-Cost Multispectral Sensing CubeSat on Amateur Radio Frequency

MESAT1 is a CubeSat that was designed and built at the University of Maine. The purpose of the CubeSat is to use low-cost and low-power CMOS cameras to analyze water turbidity, identify urban heat islands, and predict harmful algal blooms from low Earth orbit (LEO). This work discusses the design of the spacecraft architecture and physical configuration, as well as the design of a multispectral remote sensing instrument based on low-cost consumer-grade cameras, a custom electrical power supply, an onboard computer based on the Raspberry Pi compute module, a custom, low-cost deployable spacecraft antenna system, and a ground station with automated tracking.