The attitude of a satellite indicates its spatial orientation.

Attitude control, as its name implies, consists in ensuring the orientation of the satellite, which is most often constrained by many parameters: the solar panels want to point towards the Sun, the satellite transmission antenna must transmit towards the Earth, the payload can be contraint by strict pointing requirements.

CubeSat designates a nanosatellite format defined in 1999 by the Polytechnical University of California and Stanford University (USA) to reduce the launch costs of very small satellites and allow universities to develop and launch their own spacecraft. The CubeSat project ensures the broadcast of the standard and helps to ensure the safety of satellites for the main payload of launchers who put them into orbit.

Network of antennas allowing the communication between the Earth and the space probes.

An "in situ" measurement is a measurement conducted directly within the environment to be studied, as opposed to remote measurement, that is taken from a distance. This is obviously only possible in a planetary exploration context.

A project review is planned at the end of each of the key phases of a project. To obtain the green light to proceed to the next step, it is necessary to validate the constituent elements of the current stage and this is the purpose of the review.

The TRL (Technology Readiness Level) scale assesses the maturity level of a technology until its integration into a complete system and its industrialisation. Originally designed by NASA and ESA for space projects, it has nine levels.