unisat

Per-Profile Operations Guides

UniSat ships one codebase that targets 17 canonical hardware form factors. Each one has a different mass / volume / power budget, different regulatory context, and different flight ops. This folder collects a step-by-step runbook per profile so a new team can go from “cloned the repo” to “integrated & ready to fly” without cross-referencing the whole documentation set.

Every guide follows the same twelve-section template:

1. Mission class — what this profile is for (competition / science / education).
2. Physical envelope — mass, volume, dimensions, power.
3. Regulatory context — which rulebook the flight must comply with.
4. Subsystem matrix — what the form factor allows / requires / forbids.
5. Build — exact make target-<profile> invocation.
6. Mission config — which mission_templates/*.json to copy and what to edit.
7. Mass & volume validation — what the configurator should show.
8. Typical mission phases — operational sequence at a glance.
9. Testing checklist — what to prove on the bench before flight.
10. Flight-day checklist — final pre-launch verification.
11. Known limitations — hard stops you cannot work around on this profile.
12. Post-flight debrief — what data to capture and where.

Index

CanSat family

Profile	Best for	Mass cap	Guide
cansat_minimal	First-time teams, schools	350 g	cansat_minimal.md
cansat_standard	ESERO / national CanSat competitions	500 g	cansat_standard.md
cansat_advanced	NASA CanSat / deployable payload	700 g	cansat_advanced.md

CubeSat family

Profile	Best for	Mass cap	Guide
cubesat_1u	Educational LEO tech demo	1.33 kg	cubesat_1u.md
cubesat_1_5u	Compact tech demo	2.0 kg	cubesat_1_5u.md
cubesat_2u	Small science / imaging	2.66 kg	cubesat_2u.md
cubesat_3u	UniSat TRL-5 reference	4.0 kg	cubesat_3u.md
cubesat_6u	Earth observation / deployable	12.0 kg	cubesat_6u.md
cubesat_12u	Long-duration / deep-space tech	24.0 kg	cubesat_12u.md

Suborbital & atmospheric

Profile	Best for	Mass cap	Guide
rocket_avionics	IREC / SA Cup / Team America	0.5 kg	rocket_avionics.md
hab_payload_medium	Standard HAB flights	2.0 kg	hab_payload.md
drone_small / drone_medium	UAV survey / inspection	2.5 / 5.0 kg	drone.md

Shared prerequisites

Before diving into a profile-specific guide, confirm the following:

git clone https://github.com/root3315/unisat
cd unisat
./scripts/verify.sh             # "✓ UniSat green" — builds + passes every test

On a bare checkout the verify step will:

• build the firmware host image (no ARM toolchain required);
• run 28 ctest targets + 386 pytest cases + the SITL AX.25 demo;
• confirm the mission_templates/*.json ↔ form_factors.py ↔ hardware/bom/by_form_factor/*.csv cross-consistency.

If any stage is red, do not start the profile setup. Open the failing log and fix (or file an issue) before continuing — the per- profile guides assume a green baseline.

Form-factor selection flowchart

                  ┌────────────────────────────┐
                  │   Does it leave the        │
                  │   atmosphere (≥ 100 km)?   │
                  └──────────┬─────────────────┘
                  Yes        │          No
            ┌────────────────┘          └────────────┐
            ▼                                        ▼
  ┌──────────────────┐                     ┌──────────────────┐
  │  Orbital class → │                     │  Is it a balloon │
  │  CubeSat 1U–12U  │                     │  (float-capable)?│
  └────┬─────────────┘                     └────────┬─────────┘
       │                               Yes          │   No
       ▼                           ┌────────────────┘   │
┌──────────────────┐               ▼                    ▼
│ 1U / 1.5U for    │     ┌──────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐
│ first mission;   │     │  HAB profile     │  │  Is it deployed  │
│ 3U is the TRL-5  │     │  hab_payload_*   │  │  from a rocket?  │
│ flagship;        │     └──────────────────┘  └─────────┬────────┘
│ 6U/12U for       │                        Yes          │   No
│ imaging / tech.  │                 ┌──────────────────┘   │
└──────────────────┘                 ▼                      ▼
                           ┌──────────────────┐   ┌──────────────────┐
                           │  CanSat profile  │   │  Is it airborne  │
                           │  cansat_*        │   │  under power?    │
                           └──────────────────┘   └─────────┬────────┘
                                                       Yes  │
                                                            ▼
                                                   ┌──────────────────┐
                                                   │  Drone profile   │
                                                   │  drone_small/med │
                                                   └──────────────────┘

Tooling the guides refer to

Command	What it does
make target-<profile>	Cross-compile firmware with the profile’s macro
make configurator	Launch the Streamlit mission-config wizard
scripts/verify.sh	Full green pipeline (CI-equivalent, no Docker needed)
scripts/simulate_mission.sh	SITL run of the loaded mission_config.json
python3 scripts/gen_golden_vectors.py	Regenerate AX.25 golden vectors
make lint-py / make coverage-py	Python type + coverage gates
make cppcheck / make coverage	C static analysis + line-coverage gates

Cross-references

• Architecture overview — docs/design/architecture.md
• SRS + trace matrix — docs/reference/REQUIREMENTS_TRACEABILITY.md
• Commissioning runbook — docs/operations/commissioning_runbook.md
• Radiation budget — docs/hardware/radiation_budget.md
• Threat model — docs/security/ax25_threat_model.md

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