## 4 Conclusions  
In this paper, we report the design, integration, testing, and on-orbit performance of IDEASat--the first of many spacecraft that will be developed at NCU. As a first exercise in spacecraft design capacity building, the lessons learned during integration, test, and on-orbit operations have been documented and presented. Several key lessons were learned as a result of this first experience in spacecraft development, integration, testing, and operation:  
* At both a system and subsystem level, many bugs and faults are more easily detected and identified after prototyping and testing. Rapid design, fabrication, testing, and revision of self-developed subsystems and flatsat construction should be commenced as early as possible in the project. * COTS components or subsystems can be an effective method of resolving difficulties that cannot be handled in-house. It is critical to obtain a test report from the COTS manufacturer to cross compare with in-house test conditions and results, while  
Figure 27: IDEASSat EPS reset circuit diagram. also understanding the operating conditions under which the COTS component will behave nominally. * Issues with AX.25 header implementation and UHF antenna impedance matching could have been resolved in a more efficient manner had outside experts been consulted earlier. Some problems encountered during spacecraft development may require expertise that does not yet exist in-house. Although unconventional solutions can sometimes be devised, it is best to consult with experts to understand how to correctly implement accepted solutions. * Battery voltages can show rapid fluctuations when various subsystems are switched on and off. This should be taken into account when designing FSW mode transition thresholds and conditions to prevent rapid shifts in operating mode. * Given the number of components comprising a spacecraft and the number of steps required for assembly, formulation of a complete step-by-step integration procedure is crucial to ensure successful integration. Inspection points should be clearly defined and listed to ensure all connectors and fasteners are properly staked and epoxied. These also need to be communicated to other teams responsible for fabricating other subsystems. * Mechanical tolerances are critical to ensuring successful system integration, as well as interfacing with the launch vehicle. The spacecraft solar panel PCBs from the same manufacturer used on this mission were found to warp significantly with time, even after refabrication with increased PCB thickness. This should have served as a warning to seek an alternate provider, even if more expensive. * FSW settings that persist following a power cycle should be used sparingly and with extreme caution. Measures should be taken to prevent corrupted settings from being logged, such as the implementation of ECC algorithms. * SatNOGS is an invaluable resource for spacecraft tracking and monitoring, effectively providing worldwide coverage. Incorporating features to the beacon signal that will allow for the spacecraft state to be determined even without demodulation and decoding (e.g., directly from the received waterfall plots) is very useful for increased situational awareness. A successful example in the IDEASSat beacon signal was the use of different beaconing periods depending upon operational mode. * A three-byte sync word was to distinguish uplinked commands from noise. However, this did not prevent cases of random noise from periodically matching the sync word, causing a persistent increase in the command reject count. A longer sync word might be considered in the future to reduce such anomalies. * Some anomalies will only manifest after extended operation of the spacecraft. An example is the repeated UHF transceiver reboots, which did not manifest until T + 4 to T + 5 days. Longer duration burn-in tests of multiday duration on the ground could be helpful in identifying such anomalies on future missions.