UPLAND — Taylor University is one of 33 organizations selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to design, build and launch a miniature satellite in the next three years.
Those satellites, 4-inch cubes referred to as CubeSats, are compact modules that can conduct “technology demonstrations, educational research or sciences missions,” according to a press release. To date eight CubeSats have been launched, with another 27 set to launch before Taylor’s group.
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Taylor’s satellite, a rectangular double-cube referred to as ‘TSat’ is 80 percent constructed. TSat will perform a variety of research, including on temperature and density of plasma in space.
“The culmination of 10 years of design and construction is getting (TSat) in orbit with the free ride from NASA,” said Dr. Hank Voss, co-director of the project. “The beauty of a CubeSat is it’s undefined. You can build it to be whatever you want by putting a variety of electronics on it. It’s real-world, hands-on experimentation for our students, and we’re thrilled.”
Students helped create the basic structure of TSat in 2002 and 2003, and Voss said they’ll continue to work on and benefit from it through the launch. Taylor engineering seniors, who have spent previous years experimenting with balloons launched to the top one percent of the atmosphere, will put the final pieces on the module and decide what experiments it should run after leaving Earth in 2013 or 2014.
“Right now I’m working on a detector that tells the direction of charged particles,” said Natalie Ramm, a senior engineering student and intern for Voss. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after college (before this internship), but this project helped me focus on aerospace engineering.”
Once in space, TSat will communicate its data to the internet via an array of satellites. Voss said TSat will orbit the planet every hour and a half for about a year before descending into the atmosphere, providing data and troubleshooting experience for future students.
“The hard part of engineering is not just having ideas, but testing, launching and recording results,” he said. “It’s a unique opportunity for students and learning.”