Over the past three decades, the acceptance of higher risk thresholds within the space industry has facilitated the widespread integration of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components into avionics and payloads, leading to a remarkable transformation in the design of space missions. This transformation has led to the emergence of the New Space Economy and the widespread adoption of lean or small satellites in general, particularly CubeSats. CubeSats are now widely used in commercial, scientific, and research applications due to their versatility, affordability, simplicity of development, and accelerated development timelines. On-board computing plays a crucial role in the design of CubeSat missions, as increasingly high-performance computational requirements are needed to meet the challenges of future missions. This paper systematically reviews the state-of-the-art of CubeSat Command and Data Handling (C&DH) sub-system, covering both hardware components and flight software (FSW) development frameworks. It presents an analysis of the key features and recent developments of on-board computers (OBCs) in commercial and academic institutional projects funded by governments, agencies and public institutions. It further examines the effects of space radiation on avionics components and discusses the main fault-tolerance techniques used in CubeSat platforms. Finally, this paper highlights trends and hazards for future CubeSat avionics and identify potential directions for future developments in high-performance on-board computing. By synthesizing contemporary research and industry insights, this paper aims to shed light on CubeSat OBC design, providing an overview of the existing technology landscape and the challenges to be addressed for next-generation mission needs.

LabOSat is an applied research group whose main goal is to increase the Technology Readiness Level of electronic devices and systems for their use in space. To achieve this objective, the group designs and fabricates satellite payloads. Between 2014 and 2020 LabOSat has participated in 9 missions in orbit. In recent years, LabOSat started the development of LabOSat-02, a payload controller designed for small satellites. In this brief communication, LabOSat-02 hardware and firmware design is described and presented.

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are optical sensors widely used in space applications due to their high photon detection efficiency, low power consumption, and robustness. However, in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), their performance degrades over time due to prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation, primarily from trapped protons and electrons. The dominant radiation-induced effect in SiPMs is an increase in dark current, which can compromise detector sensitivity. This study investigates the potential of thermal annealing as a mitigation strategy for radiation damage in SiPMs. We designed and tested PCB-integrated heaters to selectively heat irradiated SiPMs and induce recovery processes. A PID-controlled system was developed to stabilize the temperature at 100 °C, and a remotely controlled experimental setup was implemented to operate under irradiation conditions. Two SiPMs were simultaneously irradiated with 9 MeV protons at the EDRA facility, reaching a 1 MeV neutron equivalent cumulative fluence of (9.5 ± 0.2) × 10⁸ cm⁻². One sensor underwent thermal annealing between irradiation cycles, while the other served as a control. Throughout the experiment, dark current was continuously monitored using a source measure unit, and I–V curves were recorded before and after irradiation. A recovery of more than 39% was achieved after only 5 min of thermal cycling at 100 °C, supporting this recovery approach as a low-complexity strategy to mitigate radiation-induced damage in space-based SiPM applications and increase device lifetime in harsh environments.

This work presents the irradiation testing for the qualification of LabOSat-02, an On-Board Computer designed for nanosatellites. Its resilience to ionizing radiation in Low Earth Orbit environments is assessed. This is the first stage of a qualification process in which vibration and Thermal Vacuum Chamber tests are included. The system, based on a Cortex-R4F microcontroller and Ferroelectric RAM, was exposed to a 14 MeV proton beam at the EDRA beamline at CNEA's TANDAR accelerator, reaching a total fluence of $8.1 \cdot 10^{10}~\text{p/cm}^{2}$. Real-time telemetry, including the corrected RAM errors, temperature readings, and current consumption, were continuously acquired during irradiation. Results showed no latch-up events, stable power consumption, and no double-bit errors in internal SRAM. No functional degradation was observed in the external memories or peripheral interfaces. The total absorved dose by the microcontroller die was estimated to be 570 Gy (Si).

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are optical sensors widely used in space applications due to their high photon detection efficiency, low power consumption, and robustness. However, in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), their performance degrades over time due to prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation, primarily from trapped protons and electrons. The dominant radiation-induced effect in SiPMs is an increase in dark current and dark count rate, which can compromise detector sensitivity. This study investigates the potential of thermal annealing as a mitigation strategy for radiation damage in SiPMs. We designed and tested PCB-integrated heaters to selectively heat irradiated SiPMs and induce recovery processes. A PID-controlled system was developed to stabilize the temperature at 100 °C, and a remote-controlled experimental setup was implemented to operate under irradiation conditions. Two SiPMs were simultaneously irradiated with protons at the EDRA facility, with one undergoing thermal annealing between irradiation cycles and the other serving as a control. Throughout the experiment, dark current was continuously monitored using a source measure unit, and I–V curves were recorded before and after irradiation. The results show that thermal annealing effectively reduces dark current, supporting its feasibility as a low-complexity strategy to mitigate radiation damage in space-based SiPM applications.