Boiler Bus offers a series of student-friendly, low-cost, and reliable universal CubeSat buses with ground services, designed to support generic 2U payloads for commercial, academic, and government partners. As the first collegiate team to implement a Satellite-as-a-Service (SataaS) model, PSP Sats achieves lower satellite bus costs by avoiding the profit motives and standard expenses typical of industry alternatives. PSP Sats’ 3U Boiler Bus Platform is projected to cost less than 30% of comparable commercial solutions. Following the initial launch to test this 3U Boiler Bus Platform, the team will collaborate with industry partners to create missions. This collaboration will allow the core engineering satellite development subteams to iterate on the design, aiming to lower costs, enhance reliability, and expand partnerships. Additionally, the team will work to replace as many Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components as possible with in-house designed components. Once the 3U Platform has significantly reduced costs, improved reliability, and confirmed the strategy’s viability, the team will begin developing a new Boiler Bus Platform to target different market segments.Additionally, the team will work to replace as many Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components as possible with in-house designed components. Once the 3U Platform has significantly reduced costs, improved reliability, and confirmed the strategy’s viability, the team will begin developing a new Boiler Bus Platform to target different market segments.
Paths
The PATHS (Payload Accommodation Testing Hardware Suite) Mission serves as the first test demonstration of the PSP Satellites Boiler Bus program. Its primary objective is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the in-house developed 3U Boiler Bus Platform by testing its payload bay accommodation capabilities. The mission will validate system-level requirements, including power storage, pointing accuracy, temperature range, and operational lifespan. Secondary objectives may include hosting a partner payload from a research team or industry partner, testing COTS or in-house components for future Boiler Bus iterations, and providing redundancy for non-essential components. PATHS is crucial to the success of the Boiler Bus program, as it will confirm that our payload specifications are both accurate and achievable.
