Auburn students design, build new CubeSat satellite

Auburn University students majoring in engineering, sciences and business began last fall to design and build a satellite that will eventually be launched into space.

"The AU project is part of a nationwide effort by the NASA Space Grant Consortium to develop a national workforce and to have student-built satellites in orbit immediately, sent to the moon by 2005, and blasted off to Mars by 2009," associate professor of physics Jean-Marie Wersinger said.

Wersinger, a NASA Space Grant Fellow and coordinator of the program, said the program's short-term goal is to design, build and launch a satellite in one year's time. The long-term plan is to establish a permanent satellite-building capability on the Auburn campus. Participating students are taking a course called Student Satellite Design (PHYS 3500) and a related laboratory course (PHYS 3501). Combined, the lecture and laboratory courses provide the students with the essential information they need to build a CubeSat satellite.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department students Andrew Sivulka and Larry Stephens are among the students from electrical and computer engineering, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, and the College of Business who have been working since last spring to investigate various options for possible satellite missions. Ron Jackson and Brad Thieleman joined the project in the spring 2003 semester.

"We must come up with a design that incorporates a power system, a communications system, a command and data handling system, and a science payload—all within a thermally controlled structure—and it must fit in a four-inch box and weigh no more than 2.2 pounds," graduate student project manager Luther Richardson said.

For more information and to follow the project's progress, visit the CubeSat web page at www.space.auburn.edu.