Building paper models of the Qubik twin satellite mission, as we get ready for launch

Firefly Aerospace a few days ago announced the successful static fire test of the Firefly Alpha launch vehicle on its launchpad, preparing for its inaugural flight. On the final stage of this rocket, Firefly Aerospace engineers have integrated PicoBus, Libre Space Foundation’s open-source hardware PocketQube class satellite deployer, hosting several satellites including Qubik 1 and Qubik 2.

The Qubik twins as soon as they will be deployed in orbit will perform radio amateur experiments investigating various modulation schemes for performance and orbit determination.

As we get ready for this launch, Zach’s PaperSat Designs has created a paper model of the Qubik satellite.

Don’t hesitate to build your own. You will just need a couple of sheets of 65lb card stock paper (160gr/m² might also work for you), glue, a colored printer and download the following PDF files for the paper model and instructions.

We recommend checking out all of Zach’s PaperSat Designs models, including UPSat, the previous open-source satellite mission Libre Space Foundation re-designed, integrated and delivered (PDFs of the model and instructions).