as a project for school, we are designing a preliminary conceptual 3U CubeSat design. The mission is to launch in orbit at 1,000 km and Maintain orbit for 1 month. After orbit is maintained for 1 month, the CubeSat will reduce orbit by 100 km over the course of 1 month. After new orbit is reached it will maintain that orbit for 1 month, and repeat the process until it reaches earths atmosphere where it will then burn up.
Our structure consists of Power, Structure, Thermal, COMMS, ADACS, Orbital, and Payload. We have a target objective of designing this for \$25,000 with a max threshold of \$100,000. The mission will consist of measuring charged particles.
We have gathered all components for each subsystem, except payload and we are already at our objective price. We have done extensive amount of research for COTS components, and looking for guidance on which components you guys recommend to reduce our costs as much as possible.
What components do you guys recommend that are cheaper than what we’ve found? Our most expensive area is ADACS, where the computer, magnetometer, Nadir, sun sensor, is around \$15,000. Do you know a cheaper way to go about doing it.
This CubeSat consist of Solar Sail for our propulsion. Please let me know what you recommend as far as components go for each subsystem, so I can look up pricing. Thank you for all your help.