Student satellite to orbit Earth

Group plans to complete the project by 2008

By: Cody Haueter

Posted: 11/5/07

A group of innovative SJSU students is building a small satellite they plan to send into Earth's orbit next spring.

"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.

Luine said the Spartnik project was never completed because of political and administrative issues that arose.

"Our project, while similar in goal, is not a spin-off of the Spartnik project," Luine said. "The CubeSat project is different and just as groundbreaking as the Spartnik project. We are doing something on a much smaller scale. Smaller teams with fewer goals tend to be faster, more agile and easier to organize."

Not all of the students involved in the project are mechanical engineering students, Stackpole said.

"CubeSat Team SJSU currently has around 20 members from various engineering, science and business backgrounds, and we are always looking for other people who can help out with the project," said Stackpole.

The CubeSat project is not part of a class, but it is for any student who wants to be involved.

"One of the important aspects of our club is that it is completely interest based," Stackpole said. "We are not doing this as part of school curriculum. There is no class credit for our work. We don't get paid. We are just doing what we love."

The team still has a lot of things to do before it can send their satellite into space. Right now, Stackpole said the team is finishing the overall design and it expects it to be ready to launch sometime next year.

"When working on a project like this you run into a lot of nay-sayers, people who come up with a hundred reasons why something can't be done. But I've seen the seemingly impossible happen, and I know that this school possesses not only the know-how but also the motivation to pull something like this off," Stackpole said.