Development of an Off-the-Shelf Bus for Small Satellites

KySat1 is a 1 kilogram picoclass satellite being developed by college students across the state of Kentucky. To the best of our knowledge, the KySat effort is the first by a state to develop a satellite. The consortium assembled to fund and develop KySat includes public, private and educational partners throughout Kentucky. While the primary mission of KySat1 is educational outreach, the goals of the KySat program include (1) Educational experience for secondary and post secondary students (2) Cultivate an aerospace and satellite technology base in Kentucky (3) Develop a reliable reusable satellite bus that will form the basis for future education and commercial KySat missions. The timeline for KySat1 is aggressive and off-the-shelf technology is leveraged whenever possible. This paper overviews the KySat1 design and development.