The environmental CubeSat mission E.CUBE for low earth orbit data acquisition

The scientific objectives of the e.Cube missions are the development of the technologies and methodologies to increase spacecraft autonomy during collision avoidance manoeuvre, to characterise untraceable space debris objects to update and improve the debris environmental model, and finally, to model the upper atmosphere and the thermomechanical loads for more accurate re-entry prediction. These objectives address distinct but interlinked aspects of space sustainability, spanning the entire lifetime of any space mission. The e.Cube satellite consists of a 12-unit CubeSat, flying in Low Earth Orbit to carry out three payloads to address the scientific objectives of the mission. In particular, the collection and analysis of the debris environment are based on a particle detection device in the frontal part of the CubeSat, while the characterisation of the upper atmosphere is based on a re-entry data collection device. Finally, the collision avoidance manoeuvre will rely on artificial intelligence.