Critical Design Review

June 30, 2025

Author: Sydney Macdonald

During the week of June 2 UVic CfAR hosted satellite teams from three other universities, the University of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Manitoba, all part of the CUBICS program, with the objective to present Critical Design Reviews (CDR) for their CubeSat projects. Members of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), academia, and satellite industry experts were also present to provide feedback on each team’s progress.

The CfAR team presented a CDR for the MARMOTSat project with help from members of UVSD and volunteers who have contributed to the project. We were also lucky to have Dr. Bradley Buckham, the Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. David Kendall, the retired Director General of the CSA, giving opening remarks at our presentation.

Dr. Kendall giving opening remarks at the MARMOTSat CDR.

The CDRs contained details on all aspects of the satellites’ design, including each subsystem, integration and testing plans, and project management. This was a chance for the teams to share progress and successes, as well as receive feedback from experts on the progress.

After a successful presentation, the week was closed out with a workshop on small satellite ground station design and satellite operations for the visiting teams to share UVic’s expertise in this area, from the highly successful ORCASat mission.

The UVic team received very positive feedback on its presentation from the CSA experts and other attendees. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the MARMOTSat project so far and those who made the CDR possible - now onto AI&T and TRR!