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A group of Texas A&M aerospace engineering students are hoping to take a small step for mankind when their project blasts off aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour.
In addition to testing a new global positioning system engineered by the Johnson Space Center, the Aggie team hopes to use a miniature satellite to rendezvous and dock with a counterpart satellite developed at the University of Texas.
John Graves and five other team members traveled to Florida to see the satellite, dubbed AggieSat2, go into space aboard Endeavour, but NASA was forced to delay the launch until next month because of a hydrogen leak.
"We were disappointed, but these kind of things happen all the time," said Graves, the graduate manager of the $200,000 project.
The 5-inch "picosatellite" cube weighs about seven pounds and will be launched into orbit as part of a Johnson Space Center program.
"It's a cooperative effort with UT. After the first satellite is launched and the workload gets larger, we will most definitely be working more closely with UT, " Graves said. The satellite from the University of Texas, Bevo-1, is also aboard Endeavour. "[Bevo-1] is a different design, but serves the same function," Graves said.
The program involves four missions.
The satellites will be launched as one unit before separating. The satellites will then collect a series of positioning data points over the course of three months.
AggieSat2 will send information about its location using NASA's new GPS system once or twice a day, for four minutes at a time, to a control station set up on A&M's Riverside Campus. Students at the control station will send the results to NASA, where the GPS readings will be checked for accuracy.
AggieSat2 will send information about its location using NASA's new GPS system once or twice a day, for four minutes at a time, to a control station set up on A&M's Riverside Campus. Students at the control station will send the results to NASA, where the GPS readings will be checked for accuracy.
The GPS system is being tested for NASA's Constell-ation program, which is designed for unmanned cargo vehicles and space assembly projects.
"We will consider the mission a success once we've downloaded two full orbits and give NASA what they want," Graves said.
The project's final mission will be for the Texas A&M and University of Texas satellites to find their way back to each other without human assistance, Graves said. If successful, the mission could be the foundation for the future of spacecraft, officials said.
Paul Lucas, the project's software team leader, said once AggieSat2 is in space, "health updates," such the satellite's battery charge and temperature, will be available via Twitter and Facebook.
"Through our software, our satellite will establish communication and will automatically update the satellite's Twitter account. It'll be short, one-liner updates," Lucas said. "Facebook will be done manually and will have higher-level updates such as completed GPS data information and the satellite's progress entering different phases of the mission."
The AggieSat Lab was set up in 2005 by Helen Reed, a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering. The lab involves about 30 team members and 20 volunteers who have helped with the various stages of AggieSat2.
NASA funded the project primarily through a grant stipend, but private funds also contributed to the making of the satellite.
The satellites will be launched July 11, at the earliest.
