AUStronauts CubeSat

yang.yang16@unsw.edu.au (Dr Yang Yang) — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mission

The AUStronauts CubeSat project aims to design, build and validate a 3U CubeSat to retrieve space weather measurements from ionospheric plasma and the local magnetic field using student-built payloads over an 18-month orbital lifetime.

Its primary purpose is to measure fluctuations in the density, temperature and plasma potential of the Earth’s ionosphere and local magnetic field in response to geomagnetic storms, enabling the categorisation and tracking of space weather phenomena.
This project also provides hands-on technical and systems engineering experience for aspiring space engineers.

AUStronauts is a UNSW Engineering Vertically Integrated Project, and I am its Academic Lead.

The team

The team spans undergraduate and postgraduate students across the engineering disciplines a spacecraft needs — structures, power, communications, avionics, payload and systems engineering — working the mission as a single integrated programme rather than a set of coursework exercises.

We take on new members in Term 1 each year. If you are a UNSW student, register your interest through the AUStronauts VIP page.

How you can help

The mission needs partners for the path to flight: subsystem or payload engineering, access to environmental test facilities — vibration, thermal vacuum, EMC — or a launch and deployment opportunity. See Partner with us.

CubeSat on Dr Yang Yang

AUStronauts CubeSat

Mission

The team

How you can help