As a software engineer learning hardware development, I found myself first gravitating towards understanding how information is transmitted between devices. This article is part of an ongoing series meant to teach myself satellite design and eventurally develop functioning prototypes which can be launched into space. From the group up, I'll explore what is required to transition from software development into hardward development, learning from the internet as questions come to mind.

Determining and building the correct array of instruments for your satellite is a fairly involved process. For each instrument, you'll need to teach hardware engineers enough about your realm of science in order to have an instrument built. In the case of remote sensing, there is already a large array of instruments from past missions we can pull from.

In my research on SmallSat deployment using CubeSat Platforms, I've started to find myself gravitaing towards the Command and Data Handling subsystem design. What peaked my interest was a thought experiment around implemening secure command reception and actknowledgement for satellite communication during unencypted transmission.