Spring Break
Student satellite to orbit Earth
Group plans to complete the project by 2008
Cody Haueter
Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: News
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"The mission of CubeSat Team SJSU's primary satellite will be to relay messages across the parts of the world it passes over by means of a remote-operated audio record and playback system," said Eric Stackpole, president of the team and a fifth-year mechanical engineering major.
The satellite will act as an answering machine, and people will be able to send voice or digital messages up to the satellite, Stackpole said.
"A CubeSat is a small satellite 10 cubic centimeters in size," said team secretary Mikhail Blinkov, a senior majoring in aviation operations. "It was developed by Stanford University and Cal Poly State as a cheap way to go into space,"
People in other parts of the world will be able to play back the messages when the satellite passes over them, Stackpole said.
"There are actually two designs we're pursuing right now; one is a very basic beacon that will do the same thing as Sputnik, and the other is a slightly more complex communication payload," Stackpole said.
Sputnik I, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, was the first satellite in the world to orbit the earth, according to NASA's Web site.
By working on two different designs, Stackpole said it gives people who have less experience the opportunity to learn how to do things without getting overwhelmed with a very challenging project.
"We currently have about six engineering students working on this," said team member Arash Shokouh, a computer engineering graduate student. "We expect a completion date in Spring 2008."
Shokouh said this is the first time SJSU has attempted doing this project.
"We still have many milestones to meet, such as testing the satellite in the 'vomit comet,' which is a freefall airplane run by NASA, and vibrations testing and other electrical tests," Shokouh said.
The students working on the project right now are trying to get something completed before they graduate.
"We have a very short goal of the end of the semester for a very simple satellite, something that just beeps," said Evan Luine, the team's vice president. "Once we get that part working and ready to go we still have something to put into space."
Before attempting to build the CubeSat project, SJSU students were working on a satellite called Spartnik in the late '90s.
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