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Curriculum

Course catalogue

Applied training for engineers building and operating small satellites — written from AfriOrbit's own CubeSat, satellite-IoT and avionics material.

CubeSat Development

The full subsystem-by-subsystem programme: space systems, structures, thermal, power, on-board computing, communications, attitude control, payload and ground segment.

Foundation

Introduction to Space Systems

What a satellite is, how the CubeSat standard happened, and the systems engineering that holds a mission together

The foundation course. Satellite classification, the history that produced the CubeSat, Kenya's place in it, and a working command of the systems engineering lifecycle.

3 h4 lessons
Intermediate1 simulator

Electrical Power Subsystem

Generate, store, distribute and control — the subsystem that causes a quarter of all on-orbit failures

Three sessions: EPS fundamentals, the design process with real sizing arithmetic, and the hardware development flow from SPICE to a PC/104 board.

7 h10 lessons
Intermediate1 simulator

On-Board Computer and Data Handling

The processor, the flight software, and the data budget that decides whether your images ever reach the ground

System architectures, flight software design, radiation effects on computing, and a fully worked data budget.

4 h5 lessons

Satellite-to-IoT

LoRa, the SX1278, edge device design and the store-and-forward architecture that connects remote sensors to a spacecraft.

IntermediateHardware1 simulator

LoRa for Satellite IoT

Spreading factors, airtime, and the configuration on AfriOrbit's own edge device

How LoRa trades data rate for range, what that costs in airtime, and how the SX1278 on the AfriOrbit IoT Edge Device is actually configured.

3 h4 lessons

Rocketry Avionics

From blinking an LED to a flight computer that logs a full trajectory — the twelve-step firmware ladder used on the Morgan State rocketry programme.

FoundationHardware1 simulator

Flight Computer Firmware

Twelve steps from a blinking LED to a data logger that survives a flight

AfriOrbit's Morgan State University avionics progression, one concept per step, ending in a working CSV flight recorder on an ESP32 with a BMP280 and an MPU6050.

5 h6 lessons