ADSAT THE ASTRONAUT DEPLOYABLE SATELLITE

摘要

Weber State University is a four-year undergraduateinstitution with the mission of producing graduates capable ofapplying engineering principles to the solution of real problems.Its Center for Aerospace Technology (CAST) has put two satellitesinto space using thousands of hours from volunteers from thetechnical community, University faculty, and senior students in theSchool of Technology. Satellite projects have been an excellentmeans for providing real-world experiences through the threequartersenior project sequence. A typical senior project includesdesigning circuits, interfacing to microprocessors, ordering parts,building the prototype, writing software drivers, debugging thefinal production model, integrating subsystems, and documentation.Students learn to use state-of-the-art computer aided design andproduction tools to model, analyze, document and produce workinghardware while working with members of the project design team.The students are placed in technical roles seldom experienced bystudents or even entry level engineers.Weber State faculty and students have learned many thingsthrough program implementation. This paper explores the lessonslearned and points out some pitfalls encountered in the Weber StateUniversity satellite program. A new satellite abbreviated ttADSAT ttpresently being developed by WSU is introduced. The satellite isto be easily accessible to school children throughout the countryand the world, with the mission of interesting school age childrenin science.