Using Internet-based Technologies in a University Satellite Project*

UPMSat2 is an experimental micro-satellite mission that is being developed at UPM. The mission is intended to be used as a technological demonstrator as well as an educational platform. This paper focuses on the on-board computer system and the control functions implemented on it from an educational perspective. The project is used both in graduate courses and graduation projects as a basis for examples and a source of topics for laboratory work. Students work in designing and developing software for various satellite subsystems, and they use a set of web and internet-based technologies to access project documents and develop software in a collaborative work setup. The paper describes the use of internet tools by student teams and makes an assessment of the contribution of the tools to their work.