The European Student Earth Orbiter, a microsatellite mission to low Earth orbit, is providing students with unparalleled hands-on experience to help prepare well-qualified space engineers for Europe's future workforce. The 45-kg ESEO microsatellite should be ready for launch in the second half of 2016, with mission duration of around six months, extendable up to 18 months. Eleven university student teams from eight different countries are involved in the project. The power distribution and protection module is developed by a team of students from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME). For the protection of the essential loads of the spacecraft bus, the power distribution and protection module incorporates a new generation of Integrated Current Limiter (ICL) chips. The electronics are based on Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components, and the onboard software provides housekeeping, Attitude and Orbit Control, Fault-Detection, Fault-Isolation and Recovery, and payload mission management services.