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This is the landing page for the PAYLOAD Team within UTAT Space Systems. All subsystems that are part of the payload group can be accessed through this page, in addition to general payload-wide organization, strategy, and engineering efforts.
The PAY team is currently working on building a hyperspectral imaging payload that makes the most of the engineering development over 2022-2026 that was funded by the UTSU student levy. The payload will comply with the mass / volume / power / data budget that the BUS team specifies for us, with the understanding we can fine-tune & negotiate for our interests to be met “halfway”. The BUS and PAY team will collaborate with several academic & industry partners to bid for the CUBICS 2026 grant. Project and engineering work is focused on building prototypes that contribute learning value and accumulate minimum viable products leading u to the June 2027 decision on CUBICS winners, during which time UTAT SS PAY will be funded by remaining UTAT-wide funds.
| Chief Payload Engineer | Science Lead | Optics Lead |
|---|---|---|
| Iliya Shofman | Ege Artan (outgoing) | Iliya Shofman |
| Opto-Mechanics Lead | Electronics & Firmware Lead | Data Processing Lead |
| San Vo | Interviewing | Raffael Dela Cruz |
| Mission Prospecting Lead | Director of Space Systems | Updated June 2026 |
| Interviewing | Mario Ghio Neto | |
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Summer 2026 Engineering Strategy
Spectrometer Project: Build our own spectrometer using the optics we already have in the lab. Practice designing and building the optomechanical housing and analyzing optical-mechanical performance. Develop a GUI that will make the spectrometer a usable instrument for future measurement and calibration work.
Build II Completion: finish our visible-range lens-grating-lens push-broom hyperspectral imaging system, currently assembled on the lab optical table. Develop an optical alignment and calibration procedure that we can transfer to the payload. Create a data acquisition, processing, and archival pipeline for the generated hyperspectral datacubes that can be employed for handling downlinked datacubes.
Mission Scoping Literature Review: Survey literature for potential scientific mission applications, expanding from initial focus on crop residue. Focusing on versatility and importance to the CSA’s own scientific priorities. Conduct review of state-of-the-art hyperspectral earth observation push-broom imaging systems with a focus specifically on payloads flown on CubeSats. Develop a proposal for the mission science scope and instrument design that will be used to apply for CUBICS 2026.
Payload Readout Board: finish testing, debugging, and writing firmware to get the current iteration (V1) of the PAY board working. Continue with improvements (V2) that will make the board standalone and interfaceable with a PC, improve the data handling pipeline, and perhaps allow for interfacing with other camera sensors.