MAVERIC During Testing at SERC

The Magnetic Vector and Remote Imaging Communication satellite is the fourth CubeSat developed by the Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) of the University of Southern California (USC). It is also the First Satellite fully designed, built, and operated purely by SERC. Their main mission is the in-house-developed Visualization technologies: Astroboard and Holonav. It also includes 12 magnetometers located at different points inside the satellite, deployed to study Earth’s magnetic field. Finally, it is also a platform for testing attitude-control algorithms that rely solely on magnetorquers.

The Satellite concept began in 2022, following the cancellation of the MAGNETO cubesat. During 2022 and Early 2023, Astronautic Engineering (ASTE) students worked on the spacecraft concept and mission. By 2023, Positron Management will join with a gift that allows us to move from the concept to the reality.  The early detailed engineering design stage started in mid-2023. In the Spring 2024 semester, MAVERIC was the subject of study in the ASTE-421 Capstone project class for undergraduate students. Finally, physical integration began in late 2024, once a week, intensifying during the second half of 2025 and reaching full-time in early 2026, with an extensive testing program that included 20 hours of realistic operation and various scenario training. More than 60 students participated in the project, including High School students, undergraduate students (all levels), master’s students, and doctoral students.

MAVERIC timeline 2025-2026

Satellite stack view