01 / 07 · Target 2029
Launch
After two to three years of design and testing on campus, SPACE RACCOON rides to orbit as a compact 2U CubeSat: the first satellite ever built at Tufts.
- 2U CubeSat
- COTS components
- Systems engineering
Tufts CubeSat Team
Building Tufts's first satellite to see space debris before it becomes a threat.
SPACE RACCOON is a 2U CubeSat mission using onboard computer vision and machine learning to detect, classify, and assess collision risk in Low Earth Orbit.
- CubeSat form factor
- 2U
- CubeSat form factor
- Low Earth Orbit
- LEO
- Low Earth Orbit
- Mission duration
- 14 mo
- Mission duration
- Target launch
- 2029
- Target launch
The mission
From launch pad to open data.
02 / 07 · Low Earth Orbit · 14 months
Reach orbit
Deployed into Low Earth Orbit for a 14-month mission, the satellite runs on body-mounted solar cells and holds its attitude with in-house reaction wheels.
- Electrical power system
- ADCS
- Reaction wheels
03 / 07 · Vision payload
Detect
During scheduled imaging windows a modified GoPro captures a frame every 30 seconds, searching for debris against the star field.
- GoPro payload
- Imaging windows
- Onshape CAD
04 / 07 · Onboard computer vision
Classify
Image processing isolates each object and a neural network classifies it (fragment, rocket body, defunct satellite) right on the spacecraft.
- Python → C image processing
- Neural network
- FPGA
- Flight software
05 / 07 · Collision screening
Assess the risk
Tracks across frames feed a collision-risk assessment that flags the objects that matter most to anything else flying in LEO.
- Orbital mechanics
- Linear algebra
- Risk scoring
06 / 07 · VHF / UHF
Downlink
Only frames that contain debris are compressed, packetized, and sent over our radio link to a student-built ground station.
- Transceiver & antenna
- Link budget
- Ground station
- Packetization
07 / 07 · Open source
Open to everyone
Flight software and debris data are released openly to support safer orbital operations and the student teams that come after us.
- Open-source software
- Open data
- GitHub
Inside SPACE RACCOON
Every layer, built by students.
A 2U CubeSat is just 10 × 10 × 22.7 cm. Inside that volume each subteam owns a slice of the stack: the chassis and orbit analysis, power, flight software and vision, and the radio link home.
- Structures
- Software
- Power
- Comms
Five subteams
Find your part of the spacecraft.
- 01StructuresThe chassis, the thermal and vibration analysis, and the orbit it all lives in.Fridays · Nolop
- 02SoftwareImage processing, flight software, and the neural network that finds debris.Saturdays · Halligan 145
- 03PowerCollecting sunlight and keeping every subsystem alive through eclipse.Sundays · Halligan 145
- 04CommsThe radio link between SPACE RACCOON and the ground.Sundays · Halligan 145
- 05NewWeather BalloonA giant helium balloon that carries our electronics to near space, about 100,000 ft up.
Roadmap
This year on the way to launch.
September
- Avionics board complete
October
- Image processing software complete
- Avionics board tested
November
- Structure design prototype manufactured
December
- ADCS board design complete
February
- Flight software complete
- Reaction wheel manufacturing complete
March
- More to come…
Where we and our alumni work
Skills from CubeSat carry into industry. We also collaborate with MIT and UMass Lowell.
- Medtronic
- Draper
- NVIDIA
- Blue Origin
- Takeda
- MITRE
- Amazon Robotics
Last updated: September 27, 2026