Introduction
Hi everybody!
We are WARR (Scientific Workgroup for Rocketry and Spaceflight), a student group at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) with over 250 active members. We build rockets, satellites, rovers, and microgravity experiments. The goal is real hardware, designed, manufactured, tested, and operated by students.
Here are three ways we use Aisler PCBs at WARR:
MOVE-IIIa – A CubeSat Hunting Space Debris
MOVE-IIIa is our next CubeSat mission, planned for launch at the end of 2026. Its scientific payload detects and characterizes sub-millimeter space debris particles in low Earth orbit, a population too small for ground-based radar to track. Nearly all electrical systems are designed from scratch within the team.
One example is our solar panels. Beyond the cells themselves, each panel integrates the maximum power point (MPPT) electronics, and external temperature sensors for thermal monitoring in orbit. Thanks to Aisler, we were able to test our design within our strict timeline.
CRATER – An Autonomous Exploration Rover
CRATER is our self-driving rover, built to explore unknown environments like those on Mars or the Moon. It uses SLAM to map its surroundings, plan paths, and execute tasks autonomously.
Aisler PCBs sit in the rover’s core electronics. One board connects the drive motors to the central computer and handles power distribution: It drives a fully inhouse developed electrical power system board with full galvanic isolation between subsystems, giving the rover its source of power. It is the single electrical interface between compute and locomotion, so reliability mattered more than anything else in the design.
Training the Next Generation
Not every PCB we order goes to space. New members run through the complete development cycle on an intro-task board: component selection, schematic capture, layout, and routing, then assembly by hand and with our manual pick-and-place and reflow oven. By the time someone touches flight hardware, they have already taken a design from idea to working board themselves.
Thanks
We thank Aisler for supporting student aerospace engineering. Fast turnaround and consistent quality let us iterate on designs at a pace that fits a student team’s schedule, and their sponsorship lets us train members on real manufactured boards instead of breadboards.
Follow our work: [LinkedIn] [Instagram] [warr.de]