## 1 Introduction
### Educational Mission  
Many engineering programs have used CubeSat development projects as mechanisms for hands-on experience [9]. The benefits of small spacecraft projects in engineering education using the Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodology to engage students in the learning process have been shown by several authors [9; 15; 16; 17]. PBL is a model that organizes learning around complex tasks based on challenging questions or problems that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision-making, or investigative activities [18]. Compared to traditional forms of instruction, PBL enhances students' ability to transfer knowledge to new problems and to achieve more coherent understanding [9; 15; 16; 17]. Moreover, the use of Systems Engineering (SE) approach may help to minimize the risks, especially in highly complex projects such as a CubeSat mission development. The importance of SE involves a paradigm shift from an emphasis on designing functional technical systems (electrical systems, control systems, and others) to an emphasis on meeting technical, economic, learning, and management requirements. For the AlfaCrux mission, the documentation was prepared based on the standards provided by the ECSS [19] and NASA [20], and the spiral model was chosen in the development due to its recursive nature. This model defines a sequence of steps to achieve a viable product taking into account its whole life. Even though the project is currently in Phase E, i.e., in operation, the project team had to go through each phase in the early development process. This is important for a comprehensive definition of the scope of the mission and its requirements. As the project evolves, more knowledge is gathered, and the product quality increases. Figure 1 illustrates the proposed approach, in which the phases are defined as bellow:  
* Phase 0--Mission analysis and needs identification: definition of the user needs and requirements, identification of systems concepts;
* Phase A--Feasibility: validation of the stakeholders requirements, identification of solutions that meet the requirements, definition of the mission architecture;
* Phase B--Preliminary design: definition of preliminary system design, validation solutions based on mission requirements;
* Phase C--Final design and Fabrication: definition of final system design (ground and space segments), system breakdown into subsystems;
* Phase D--Integration, Tests, and Launch: integration, tests and launch of the system;
* Phase E--Operations: operation and maintenance of the system to conduct the mission;
* Phase F--Disposal: planning of decommissioning and disposal. The AlfaCrux mission involved multiple agents and actors. The team members had the opportunity to learn from activities and experiences during different stages of the mission design life cycle. For instance, graduate students were challenged beyond technical development, they were part of the project management team. Undergraduate students were involved in specific problems under the supervision of one of the guiding professors. During the project development, the involvement of graduate students took place outside a formal context of the discipline, through engagement and participation. On the other hand, the involvement of undergraduate students took place within the context of final graduation projects. At the current stage, a formal learning analysis and comparison with other methods was not yet conducted. However, on 6 June 2022, the AlfaCrux operation, command, and control activities entered the syllabus of the course named Engineering Topics, offered by the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Brasilia. In this course, engineering students had the opportunity to learn in a hands-on approach about the daily activities of operating a CubeSat.