MetuCUBE

Mission Specs

Type: 3U CubeSat, about 2.8 kg
Orbit: About 550 km, Sun Synchronous
Lifetime: 3 years
Payload: Multispectral and Thermal
Focus: Disaster Monitoring

METUCUBE

The First CubeSat of METU

METUCube is a 3U satellite mission for post disaster monitoring and early warning, designed and built by the Small Space Systems Laboratory (S3 Lab). It is the university's first full scale satellite development effort, placed in a Sun Synchronous orbit at roughly 550 km to give global disaster coverage and multi day revisit capability.

MISSION OBJECTIVES

The satellite's primary objective is to monitor and assess post disaster situations, including floods, earthquakes, and wildfires, to support damage estimation, recovery planning, and recurrence prevention. A secondary objective investigates near real time wildfire detection using onboard data and deep learning analysis, while a third objective supports continuous environmental monitoring of forests, farmland, and water bodies for food security and pollution detection.

Multispectral Imaging Four cameras capture red, green, blue, and near infrared bands, combined for vegetation, soil, and water analysis at 35 m resolution.

Thermal Imaging A long wave infrared camera for heat signature detection, supporting wildfire, drought, and volcanic activity monitoring.

DEVELOPMENT

All major subsystems, including structure, power, communications, the onboard computer, attitude determination and control, thermal control, and the payload, are designed and built in house by S3 Lab students. The project is funded and reviewed by the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), hosted by METU's Department of Aerospace Engineering, and supported technically by TÜBİTAK UZAY, with project management from the Turkish Space Agency (TUA).