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01 / 12 Mission Hatch Patch
ISU | Strasbourg, France

Mission Hatch

The CubeSat Engineering & Applications Program (CEAP).
Build a satellite. Fly it to orbit. Tuition-free.

International Space University | Strasbourg, France
Meet the Faculty →

02 / 12

The Problem

The Talent Gap

  • CubeSat market: $1.3B by 2030
  • 90+ countries want CubeSat programs, lack trained engineers
  • Only 11 of 54 African nations have a satellite
  • Women: under 15% of EE students
  • Kourou launches rockets, DOM-TOM builds nothing

The Education Gap

  • University certs: on-campus only, no flight mission
  • Online courses: theory only, no hardware
  • Full MSc: 2+ years, €80K-120K
  • No program combines hybrid + hardware + launch
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The Solution: CEAP

12
Months
10
Students per Cohort
10
Subsystems Owned
3
On-Campus Bootcamps
1
Flight-Ready CubeSat
€0
Student Tuition

Hybrid model: 6 months online + 7 weeks on-campus. Each student owns one subsystem (EPS, COM, OBC, ADCS, Payload, Structures, Thermal, Ground Station, I&T, Ops). Integration IS the curriculum.

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Why It Works

"A CubeSat has exactly 10 critical subsystems. A cohort has exactly 10 students. Each student owns one subsystem. No one can succeed alone. Everyone must integrate. That constraint is the entire pedagogy."

In 12 months, they go from orbital mechanics to flight-ready hardware. Three bootcamps at ISU in Strasbourg turn online theory into soldered circuits, tested boards, and a satellite that is ready for orbit.

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Five Missions. Five Stories.

🌍 Africa to the Stars

MISSION UHURU-1 • IoT/LoRa Relay for Agriculture

10 African engineers. Connecting remote sensor networks where no cell coverage exists. Potential partners: Kinéis, Lacuna Space, Fleet Space

🔬 Artemis Engineers

MISSION MINERVA-1 • Edge-AI Image Classification

First all-women CubeSat team from Europe. On-board ML processing. Potential partners: Ubotica, OroraTech, WIA-Europe, Thales Solidarity

🇫🇷 Outre-Mer en Orbite

MISSION OUTRE-MER 1 • AIS Illegal Fishing Detection

10 engineers from DOM-TOM. Guarding French overseas EEZ. Potential partners: Unseenlabs, CLS/CNES, Spire Global

🌐 Postcards from Orbit

MISSION ATLAS-1 • On-Demand Orbital Imaging

Open to anyone, anywhere. 50,000 people pay €10 each to have their coordinates photographed from space. Fully crowdsourced.

🥨 Bretzel en Orbite

MISSION BRETZEL-1 • Multi-Spectral Environmental Monitoring

10 engineers from Alsace / Grand Est. Air quality, vineyard health, Rhine wetlands, Vosges forests. ISU's own backyard. Potential partners: Eurométropole, Région Grand Est, ATMO Grand Est, Crédit Mutuel

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The Kourou Irony

"France launches Europe's rockets from French Guiana, but no one from French Guiana has ever built a satellite.

ISU is in Strasbourg. CNES is in Toulouse. Kourou is in Cayenne.

For €500,000, we connect these dots. This is not foreign aid. These are French citizens. This is France investing in France."
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The Strasbourg Irony

"ISU has been in Strasbourg for over 30 years. In that time, not a single satellite has been built here to serve the region that hosts it.

The people of Alsace breathe air that exceeds EU pollution limits. Their vineyards are shifting with climate change. Their wetlands are drying up.

For €500,000, Alsace gets its own eyes in orbit. Built by its own people. From the university in their backyard."
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The Numbers

€50K

Cost to train one student (paid by donors, not students)

€500K

Total per cohort (10 students + hardware + operations)

€185K

Surplus to ISU per cohort (37% margin)

Where It Goes

Faculty & Teaching€100K
CubeSat Hardware€100K
Operations€55K
External Lecturers€15K
Platform & Marketing€15K
Contingency€30K
ISU Surplus€185K
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How to Sponsor

TierContributionYou Get
🏆 Platinum €100K+ Logo on satellite, named mission, recruitment pipeline, flight heritage
🎓 Gold €50K Sponsor 1 student, named scholarship, recruitment access
🛠️ Silver €25K Subsystem mentorship, guest lecture slot, brand visibility
🤝 Bronze €10K Website logo, event access, newsletter feature

All contributions are tax-deductible donations to ISU, a registered educational institution in France. Contact the ISU Development Office for details pertaining to your nationality and applicable deduction rates.

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Why ISU

  • Only university in the world exclusively dedicated to space
  • 38 years of space education
  • 6,000+ alumni in 100+ countries
  • The "4I" principle: International, Interdisciplinary, Intercultural, Innovative
  • European space ecosystem: ESA, CNES, Airbus
  • Payloads lab and hardware facilities in Strasbourg
  • Direct French connection to Kourou / CSG
  • Existing scholarship and recruitment infrastructure
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The People's Satellite

"What if you could own a piece of a space mission for €10? Not a sticker. Not a certificate. An actual orbital photograph of your home, taken by a satellite that exists because you funded it."

How It Works

  • Users submit GPS coordinates via web app
  • The satellite photographs their location on its next pass
  • They receive a timestamped orbital image with metadata
  • Altitude, sun angle, pass time, orbital path included

The Math

50,000

users × €10 = €500,000

No institutional donors needed.
Every backer becomes a micro-ambassador.
"My house from space" is inherently shareable.

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The Ask

€2.5M

Five satellites. Five communities.
Fifty engineers trained for free.
One university. One orbit. Zero tuition.

Become a Partner Read White Paper

International Space University, Strasbourg
Meet the Faculty