Space Clubs FUTMINNA II

Abstract

Nigeria’s growing exposure to flood disasters, erosion, illegal mining, pipeline vandalism, and rapid urban expansion demands Earth-observation (EO) data that is both timely and operationally reliable. Yet current national access to EO products is constrained by long revisit times, downlink latency, and the difficulty of scaling from a single satellite to a constellation that can provide quasi-persistent coverage over priority regions. This work addresses that problem by proposing a phased, systems-engineered pathway that begins with a CubeSat “Block-0” technology demonstrator and evolves toward a high-revisit EO constellation tailored to Nigerian needs and integrated with NIGCOMSAT-enabled ground infrastructure.

The approach combines an end-state constellation concept with a detailed model-based systems engineering (MBSE) design of the initial spacecraft. First, a notional high-revisit architecture in sun-synchronous low Earth orbit is analyzed to understand key trades among sensor type (SAR versus optical), frequency band, constellation size, revisit time, and the division of processing between space and ground segments. Building on prior ISR-style studies, the architecture adopts all-weather imaging and high-rate X-band downlink while shifting advanced analytics from onboard processing to ground-based AI pipelines, thereby reducing spacecraft power and mass while enabling faster algorithm updates.

Second, a 3U CubeSat Block-0 demonstrator is defined using an MBSE workflow in a web-based systems-engineering environment. Mission-level needs for Nigerian flood mapping, infrastructure monitoring, and regional situational awareness are captured and decomposed into verifiable “shall” requirements at system and subsystem levels. The resulting requirements baseline specifies low-Earth-orbit operations, 1–5 m ground sampling distance, sub-degree pointing, secure CCSDS-based compression and AES256 encryption, ≥10 Mbps X-band downlink, and on-board storage sized for multiple imaging passes. These system-level requirements are then allocated to the payload, on-board computer, CubeSat bus, attitude control, communications, power, and thermal subsystems, with interface diagrams linking the full pipeline from image capture through compression, storage, downlink, and ground-segment analytics.

The main result is a coherent Block-0 design that is technically realistic for a university–industry demonstration mission and directly scalable: identical units can be replicated to form a regional constellation that progressively improves revisit from demonstration-scale to operational levels over Nigerian priority corridors. The architecture explicitly leverages existing and emerging national ground infrastructure, positioning NIGCOMSAT and partner institutions as key actors in tasking, data reception, and product dissemination to agencies responsible for disaster management, agriculture, and security-adjacent civil applications.

In conclusion, the study shows that a carefully specified CubeSat Block0 mission, developed with MBSE techniques, can serve as a practical first step toward a high-revisit Nigerian EO constellation. By validating the end-to-end technical chain on a small platform—while keeping requirements, interfaces, and scaling logic explicit—the proposed roadmap offers a credible, incremental path to delivering flood-extent maps, infrastructure-change alerts, and other actionable EO products for national decision-makers.