The Flight Program is the most visible and largest program. It includes all payloads developed for platforms such as high altitude balloons, aircraft-based microgravity, sounding rockets, and satellites and encompasses the development of those platforms, like the SSPL CubeSat bus, as well.

Specifically, the program focuses on giving students the experience of working through a complete project lifecycle from concept through post-flight data analysis, as well as documenting and passing on the effort when graduation or other priorities intervene. The program’s goal is to have multiple projects spanning various levels of complexity and in different phases of design.


Current Flight Projects:


G-Chaser

Initiated: 2016
Launch Date: January 2019

PAWSS team visit to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The Polar Atmospheric Winter Student Sounding rocket (PAWSS) main objective is to gather in situ atmospheric measurements to be integrated with ground-based measurements to further study polar mesospheric winter echoes (PMWEs). A secondary mission is to collect data on the lower ionosphere and contribute to modern atmospheric models.

This project currently has about 40 active undergraduate and graduate students working on different subsystems. Each subsystem directly supports the scientific instruments.  Subsystems include:

  • STR – Structures
  • PWR – Power
  • ADS – Attitude Determination System
  • CDH – Command and Data Handling
  • SCI – Science and Payload

The three instruments that will be built to directly collect measurements are:

  • LIDAR – Light Detection and Ranging
  • TEC – Total Electron Count
  • LP – Langmuir Probe

Additional information, and pictures of progress can be found here. 

 


Student Training Program

Initiated: Every January and September
Launch: Every May and December

SSPL conducts a design-build-launch program to introduce students to space systems engineering fundamentals at the start of each semester. The goal of STP is to provide aspiring underclassmen with a chance to complete a challenging and rapid design cycle before moving on to other projects in the organization.

Students form teams that design, construct, and fly a small rocket payload. Students gain the satisfaction of being involved with the end-to-end life cycle of a complex engineering project, from conceptual design, through integration and test, actual operation of the system and concluding with a post-mission summary and debrief.

Team Kerbal pictured with their rocket and payload

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact: Andrew O’Neill (ajo5182@psu.edu)


Past Flight Projects:


OSIRIS-3U CubeSat Mission

Initiated: January 2008
Accepted: March 2013
Launch: Summer 2017

The OSIRIS-3U CubeSat will conduct atmospheric research on the effects of solar flare activity on the Ionosphere.  Ground-based heaters will stimulate the Ionosphere to create artificial space weather events.  While within the heated events, the science instruments measure the electron content, electron density, and electron temperature of the stimulated Ionosphere which OSIRIS-3U then stores internally and later transmits to the SSPL Ground Station. This data will aid research on radiowave-plasma interactions and plasma transport.

The OSIRIS-3U CubeSat was accepted by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative in 2013 and will launch in mid-2017.  The Fall 2015 semester marked the final design phase of the project. Critical Design Reviews were conducted in the Spring 2016 semester, and  fabrication and testing will continue through the Summer of 2016.

The project involves about 50 active undergraduate and graduate students spread across several subsystems. Each subsystem focuses on a particular aspect of the CubeSat. Subsystems include:

  • STR – Structures – Structural design, validation, and deployments
  • PWR – Power – Subsystem power provisioning, regulation, monitoring, storage, and charge control
  • THM – Thermal – Active temperature monitoring and adjustment
  • CDH – Command and Data Handling – Data processing, collection, and storage; handles interfacing with other subsystems
  • GNC – Guidance, Navigation, and Control – Orbital location and altitude tracking, attitude control
  • COM – Communications – Data transmission and reception, status beacon operation, antenna development
  • SCI – Science and Payload – Instrument and interface design, science data acquisition

Additional information, and videos of the deployment can be found here.

Contact: Thomas White (trw5186@psu.edu)


CanSatInitiated: August, 2006
Launches: May 2007, June 2009, June 2010

The American Astronautical Society (AAS), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), National Space Grant Consortia (NSGC) and Universities Space Research Association (USRA) have organized an annual student design-build-launch competition for space-related topics. The competition is available to university and high school students from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

This annual competition allows teams from different universities and high schools to design and build a space-type system, according to the specifications released by the competition organizing committee, and then compete against each at the end of two semesters to determine the winners.

CanSat project page


Joint Astrophysics Nascent Universe Satellite (JANUS) High Energy Monitoring Instrument (HEMI)

The High Energy Monitoring Instrument (HEMI) is a student collaboration on the NASA funded, Joint Astrophysics Nascent Universe Satellite (JANUS) mission.  HEMI is designed to fly minimal allocations from the spacecraft and will detect gamma-ray bursts and provide data on their high energy spectrum.  When coupled with the other instruments on JANUS, HEMI becomes a powerful, yet simple instrument that provides meaningful science to the investigation of the evolution of the universe. 


University Student Experiment Ride Share (USERS) Sounding Rocket

Initiated: January, 2008
Flight: November, 2008

The USERS program is a multi-university collaborative project to give student experiments access to space on sounding rockets


High Energy Monitoring Instrument (HEMI) for the HASP Balloon

Initiated: January, 2008
Launch: August, 2008

The High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) is designed to carry up to twelve student payloads to an altitude of about 36 kilometers with flight durations of 15 to 20 hours using a small volume, zero pressure balloon. It is anticipated that the payloads carried by HASP will be designed and built by students and will be used to flight-test compact satellites or prototypes and to fly other small experiments.

The High Energy Monitor Instrument (HEMI) is being developed to detect when a gamma ray burst (GRB) occurs and record data on the event. Ultimately, HEMI is intended to be a student instrument for measuring GRBs on a future satellite. As the challenges for developing student satellite hardware are significant, a precursor balloon flight will provide the necessary heritage to enable a more costly and complex project.


Flyin’ Lions (2008) Microgravity Experiment

Initiated: December, 2007
Flight: June, 2008

The Flyin’ Lions participates in the NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program (RGSFOP). The team designs an experiment that requires microgravity (zero-G), writes a proposal, and then travels to Houston, Texas to fly in the C-9 aircraft (the “Vomit Comet”) to complete the experiment.

The current project is a dusty plasma experiment that aims to measure the ion drag force that holds 3-D crystalline structures of particles together within a plasma while in microgravity.

The team has submitted a proposal and been accepted to the Reduced Gravity Program 2008. As this year’s work is a reflight of last year’s experiment, the semester’s work will focus on applying the changes to the experiment and preparing it for flight. The team must also submit the Test Equipment Data Package and prepare for flight.

Flyin’ Lions webpage


NittanySat

Initiated: January, 2007
Flight Competition Review: January, 2009

The mission’s objectives include ionospheric science measurements and demonstrations of software-defined radio communications systems, deployable structures, and MEMs technology.

The Nanosat team is looking for motivated students in engineering, science, education, public relations, and media majors.

Nanosat 5 Project Web site


Flyin’ Lions (2007) Microgravity Experiment

Initiated: December, 2006
Flight: March, 2007

The Flyin’ Lions participates in the NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program (RGSFOP). The team designs an experiment that requires microgravity (zero-G), writes a proposal, and then travels to Houston, Texas to fly in the C-9 aircraft (the “Vomit Comet”) to complete the experiment. Currently, the team is developing an experiment to measure the ion drag force that exists between particles in a complex plasma.

Flyin’ Lions webpage


ESPRIT (SPIRIT III)

Initiated: September, 2003
Launch: July 1, 2006 (Norway)

ESPRIT was the third iteration of Penn State’s SPIRIT sounding rocket program, which began as part of NASA’s Student Launch Program and was funded by the NASA Wallops, the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, and industry. The ESPRIT project allowed university students to design and build a scientific payload, participate in its launch aboard a NASA sounding rocket, and then analyze the results.

ESPRIT carried into space seven scientific instruments to study the mesosphere and lower ionosphere, an attitude determination suite, and four engineering demonstrations. Throughout the spring and fall 2006-2007, students analyzed the flight data and publishing their results.
ESPRIT webpage


LionSat NanoSatellite

Initiated: 2003
Launch: TBD (“on hold” during NittanySat misison)

LionSat provided students from diverse backgrounds and technical fields the opportunity to develop a small satellite. This mission, which began as part of the University Nanosat Program, required students to apply their classroom education to the design of a flight-worthy spacecraft that would measure properties of the ionosphere. LionSat was intended to travel into orbit on an expendable launch vehicle.

LionSat webpage


Deep Space Test Bed (CATS)

Initiated: March 2005
Launch: June 2005

The CATS (Characterization of Aerosols in the Troposphere and the Stratosphere) payload launched on NASA’s new Deep Space Test Bed (DSTB) facility in June of 2005. The payload used a digital camera and a spectrometer coupled to a telescope to detect trace chemicals in the atmosphere. The DSTB was lifted by a 40-million-cubic-foot scientific balloon to an altitude of about 120,000 feet, or nearly 23 miles. The payload identified pollution-related aerosols — solid or liquid particles in the air — in the troposphere, which rise eight miles above sea level, and the stratosphere.

CATS webpage


SPIRIT II Sounding Rocket

Initiated:September 2000
Launch:October 2003

The 39-foot SPIRIT II Rocket launched successfully on October 3rd 2003 at 10:30 A.M. The rocket reached an apogee of 125 km and was successfully recovered from the Atlantic ocean. The successful launch of this rocket was largely due to the countless man-hours put in by many dedicated students. The rocket’s mission was to take wind measurements in the upper atmosphere in order to study atmospheric dynamics. The rocket had a total of five experiments: an integrated electron counter (IEC), a direct current probe (DC probe), a trimethyl aluminum chemical release (TMA), a chaff experiment and a GPS sphere.

Spirit II webpage


Flyin’ Lions 2001

Flight:2001

The Flyin’ Lions demonstrated their active Subject Load Device (SLD) — an instrument that uses computers to monitor the position of exercising astronauts in microgravity and compensates to allow for greater range of movement and exercise variation.
Currently, astronauts are limited to exercises where their hip level remains fairly stationary.
The lack of exercise variation could contribute to the accelerated bone loss recorded by astronauts that stay for an extended time in space.

Flyin’ Lions webpage


Get Away Special (GAS), Space Shuttle Endeavor, STS-108

Launch:2001

The GAS project has provided a special opportunity for about 50 students to design and build a payload to be flown on the Space Shuttle. The experiments were designed and fabricated by students working as volunteers or as part of the course credit for EE/AERO 492 (Introduction to Space Physics) or as an independent study. Three experiments were prepared which investigate plant growth in space, the magnetic field environment in the shuttle, and the acoustic signature for collisions on the shuttle by space debris.

GAS webpage


Spirit 1

Launch: May 2000

SPIRIT provides the opportunity for students from a wide range of educational backgrounds to gain hands-on experience in the design and fabrication of a research sounding rocket. The 30-month project, part of the NASA Student Launch Program, enhances classroom experience while emphasizing creativity, collaborative learning and time management skills.

Spirit I webpage


Get Away Special, Space Shuttle Endeavor STS-77

Initiated:1992
Launch:May 1996

The Penn State canister that was bolted to the Space Shuttle bay, among a dozen of its peers, for the May 19, 1996, launch, measured 32 inches tall and 27 inches around. It held three experiments — one to record the pings made by space junk hitting the Shuttle, one to measure the magnetic field in and around the spacecraft, the third to find the effects of cosmic radiation on certain computer memory chips — altogether the work of some 100 engineering students over four years.

The article can be found here.


Get Away Special, Space Shuttle Columbia, STS-61C

Launch: January 1986.