Project managment of a student built space satellite: The KUTESat-1 Pathfinder management plan, technical report and lessons learned

This dissertation aims to fulfill two purposes: a report of the management techniques used by the author to manage the first Kansas Universities Technology Evaluation Satellite (KUTESat) called Pathfinder, and a description of the most important technical aspects covered by the author for the same project.; During the development of the KU satellite, the author has been exposed to the cubesat community and recognized a void in the management portion of the projects. Although in the past years colleges such as Stanford and University of Tokyo have launched and operated successful satellites, they recognized that it was the role of the advisors to plan and monitor the progress of the projects.; Using the project management plan (PMP) developed for Pathfinder, and using lessons learned from that experience, the author aims to fill the void creating an initial reference that in the future could be reviewed, expanded and adapted, and then be published as a manual for the development of pico-satellites by teams of students. The PMP here reported covers all the traditional issues that a project manager has to face, with an approach that fits the effort expected by a graduate student.; The second part of the document reports descriptions of the technical features that the author addressed during the project. Each subsystem of the satellite is highlighted and then specific tasks are described to reflect the work done. Special emphasis is placed on the structural aspects and testing procedures adopted to qualify Pathfinder for its launch.; Projects involving the development of pico-satellites are increasing month after month. It is important to create the right learning environment and to understand how this experience affects students. An entire new generation of space engineers will be influenced by the practice learned with cubesats, and a better understanding of the managerial aspect will help the commercial future of space missions.