Each identical TROPICS CubeSat is a dual-spinning 3U CubeSat equipped with a 12-channel passive microwave spectrometer providing imagery near 90 and 205 GHz, temperature sounding near 118 GHz, and moisture sounding near 183 GHz.
Each CubeSat comprises a 2U Blue Canyon Technologies spacecraft bus with an Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS), avionics, power, and communications, and a 1U spinning radiometer payload with highly integrated, compact microwave receiver electronics designed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory with receivers from UMass - Amherst and Virginia Diodes Inc.
