The Development of Experimental Remote Sensing Cubesat Payload Integrated With On-Board Classification Feature: The Progress and Educational Aspect

Climate change has been affecting human life since more than a decade ago. IEEE GRSS through IEEE GRSS Student Grand Challenge program has gathered students from several universities including Telkom University and Kyushu Institute of Technology to develop a CubeSat payload for climate change monitoring mission. Both teams were working on the development of the experimental remote sensing payload that is integrated with an on-board classification system. The payload is equipped with a small serial camera and two microcontrollers for controlling and for applying the classification algorithm. The ultimate target of this payload is detecting cloud coverage in the images. It is an indication of environmental change. This project has yielded a payload called Locana payload. It brings an Arducam OV5642 and two microcontrollers ATSAMD21 and SMT32F7 as the camera controller and cloud classification processor consecutively. This project has given a priceless educational experience for both teams, they were separated geographically but they were working on the same PCB board. The hardware and software design and integration have been carried out utilizing online meetings and remote access due to the pandemic.