Applying Model-Based Systems Engineering on CubeSat Budget Calculating

This work presents a tool based on Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for automating the process of budget calculation - mass, volume, power, and energy - for CubeSat nanosatellites based on user input which can be iteratively fine-tuned to fit the CubeSat limitations. CubeSat is a standard that defines nanosatellites with a base unit (1U) measuring <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">${10 \times 10 \times 10}$</tex> and a maximum weight of up to 2 kg per 1U. They are cost-effective due to their use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components. This modularity provides flexibility on component selection to conform to the standard constraints that are forced by budget calculation. Modularity is fundamental in systems engineering design, which adopts a holistic approach to create systems by integrating various components and considering their interactions. CubeSat follows this approach. Object Process Methodology (OPM) and Systems Modeling Language (SysML) are popular modeling languages for systems engineering. This work benefits from MBSE for nanosatellite budget calculation. Specifically, it uses OPM to conceptually model it, applies OPM's computational capabilities on the produced model to calculate its budgets using OPM's coding capabilities, and eventually visually simulates the model by OPM's execution feature.