Workforce Development
Crawl, Walk, Fly
Travel funds were provided to send professors from UAH, Auburn, the GHCC and University of South Alabama to workshops at JPL and Colorado (Colorado Space Grant) to learn how to build student space hardware in an attempt to interest students in hands-on engineering. The project is compatible with NASA's interest in workforce development. The program is now at Auburn, UAH and USA.
Auburn - Crawl, Walk, Fly [website]
Auburn has embarked on an exciting program to build student CubeSats, small Earth satellites of mass less than 1kg. As well as support from ASGC, the program has received institutional and academic support from Auburn. Students involved develop skills through hands-on research activities that align with NASA priorities. Students are learning how to design and build a small satellite and work as a team in the following areas: power, communications, structure, command, data handling, science team and management with the first science mission of CubeSat to measure the strength, B., of the Earth's magnetic field along the satellite's orbit and the effect of solar activity on B in low earth orbit. A Satellite Design Class in the Physics Dept. is taught with professors from Aerospace and Electrical Engineering. A lab is associated with the class. Several balloon experiments will be launched in the fall and winter to test the satellite components. The Space Research Institute has provided office space and a satellite building area. Students are able to present results at meetings. There have already been two balloon launches as a result of this project beginning in Fall 2002.
UAH - Workforce Development Satellite Project
This project integrates the student payload design, as an option, in two courses required of all students majoring in Electrical Engineering at UAH, EE 100, Concepts in Digital Signals and Systems, and EE494, EE Design Projects. The Space Grant Student Satellite option is based on the design, construction test, flight and evaluation of a BallonSat project. The student payload program has the benefit of enhancing the students experience to address aerospace engineering design problems at the start, the completion, and throughout their academic program, and provide the student with the "real world" experience desired by the aerospace engineering community. Students from Alabama A&M University are informally included in the BalloonSat building and flying phases. Begun in 2002 this project has launched two balloon payloads, with success. ASGC provides funding for kits, materials and launch support as well as travel to workshops or conferences to disseminate information. Summer interns at MSFC learned how.
Workforce Development in Modern Biology
At UAH a project involves student research into topics relating to modern biology: Origins of Life and The Search for Life Elsewhere, both molecular biology topics. Students are selected competitively from the ASGC affiliate universities for an undergraduate research experience. Students perform experiments studying the depletion zone around a crystal growing in the convective and non-convective (such as gel media) environments.
A second project studies extremophiles, organisms that can thrive at temperatures and pressures far outside the limits for ordinary animals and plants. This second project studies an organism, archaea sulfolobus acidocaldarius, which lives in very hot springs, and is NASA-selected research under the guidance of a NASA PI and his co-investigators.
Reusable Rocket Design at UAH
A course for undergraduate students to receive a design experience. Students design and build a rocket to travel to 10,000' and carry a small science payload (~2 lbs). The course is led by a team of engineering faculty and NASA engineers. 30 students have participated in designing, building and launching a payload as well as preparing a critical design review and a flight readiness review which were presented to NASA and Army technical personnel.
High Altitude Balloon Program
Across America, National Space Grant College and Fellowship (Space Grant) students are learning from the ground up—literally—by designing, building, flying, and operating a broad range of spacecraft. Students come to Space Grant with an interest in Space, but with different levels of skill, knowledge, and experience. Missions of growing complexity provide opportunities to acquire baseline skills and then to build on them. They range from the simple—building soda-can "satellites" or small payloads for launch from small rockets or balloons—to building sophisticated satellites. We call this strategy "crawl," "walk," "run," and "fly!" Our goal is to make aerospace history by sending the first student-built satellites beyond Low Earth Orbit and to use this strategy to educate the next generation of NASA and aerospace industry scientists and engineers.
What is the National Space Grant Student Satellite Initiative?
The National Space Grant Student Satellite Initiative (SG-SSI) has become a major thrust of the Space Grant program in 2003. Space Grant is a national network of colleges and universities working to expand opportunities for Americans to understand and participate in NASA's aeronautics and space programs by supporting and enhancing science and engineering education, research, and outreach programs. The SG-SSI brings together university, industry, military, and government resources to train America's future scientists and engineers.
What is unique about SG-SSI?
The SG-SSI is a student-driven enterprise. Students manage and operate the program with faculty advisors and experience the entire "design-build-fly-operate-analyze" cycle of a space mission. The experience complements regular classroom learning by offering direct hands-on immersion with the full mission cycle. Few NASA or aerospace industry scientists and engineers ever take a project through the full mission cycle.
How is the SG-SSI a national-level component of Space Grant?
At the present time, student-built satellite programs have been developed in only a few states. These have proven to be highly successful. Our goal is to have every state Space Grant consortium involved at all levels. Our initial effort is to share the existing programs -- for students in all Consortia. We are already moving ahead with our present limited resources, offering a second workshop on how to set up a "crawl" program this June. Consortia will learn what they need to know to start their own programs. Consortia will partner and work together in many cases.
How will funds obtained for Space Grant be used to support the SG-SSI?
Most funds will be used for student stipends and to purchase materials for the student satellite experiments. Funds also will be used to spread the program nationwide.
Can a consortium with limited resources realistically get into this activity?
YES! First, thanks to Space Grant's national network (550+ colleges and universities), we have widespread expertise and experience that we are eager to share and spread to our partner institutions. Second, costs are not large:
- A high altitude ballooning project can be set up for approximately $4000 in one-time infrastructure costs. After this, a flight to 100,000 feet (above 99% of the Earth's atmosphere) costs about $200 in expendables (e.g. helium plus balloon costs).
- A small earth satellite program (Cube Sat) can be begun with approximately $10,000. A large number of launch opportunities for student developed satellites are being explored, with costs ranging from free too nominal.
- Loral Space Systems has their employees building Cube Sats as part of their continuing education program. If the aerospace industry is willing to pay for their employees to do this, then surely they are enthusiastic about having Space Grant universities provide this experience to their students before they move into the workforce.
How does the SG-SSI aid in aerospace/NASA workforce development?
Aerospace industries are strongly supportive of these programs. Their engineers and scientists act as volunteer mentors to our students. Test facilities and materials and even direct funding are made available for the student-built-payloads. The companies are eager to move the students into employment as soon as they graduate.
For example:
- Within 24 hours of one state's first Space Grant Consortium student payload balloon flight, GSSL Inc, a NASA contractor, contacted the Consortium and offered to hire any student who had worked on the program.
- Since the national Cube Sat university email listserv was established, three aerospace companies have sought to hire students who have worked on Cube Sat programs.
How does the SG-SSI build a community of learners?
Student efforts evolve from relatively simple experiments to more sophisticated levels through the "crawl, walk, run and fly" strategy. This builds a community of learners across the states as well as educational levels. For example, Master's levels students may be working on a space science instrument at the "fly" level while freshmen engineering students are designing, building and flying balloon payloads at the edge of Space at the "crawl" level.
Many introductory freshman curricula in engineering and the sciences are often tedious but necessary to provide knowledge based on science discovered centuries ago. Offering incoming students the chance to design, build, and fly a space mission of their own design and fabrication captures the imagination and enthusiasm of students, brings science and engineering alive, and provides skills that makes participating students highly employable. Space flight projects engage students in exciting science, engineering, and technical learning.
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