Several students from UMass Lowell were recently awarded $200,000 from NASA to design and build a satellite, which it plans to put into orbit in two years.
Supriya Chakrabarti, a professor of physics who is the head of the Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology at UMass Lowell, will be directing the group of 53 students, who will be developing the Space Hauc satellite. The completed satellite will be deployed by NASA for a yearlong test mission in orbit around Earth to determine its ability to collect images of the sun, and transmit this data at speeds up to 100 megabits per second.
The Space Hauc satellite will be a low-cost, miniaturized version of larger satellite models. When completed, it will be both four inches wide and high, a foot long, and 9lb in weight. It will be able to reach a speed of 17,000 miles per hour so that it can circle the planet about every 90 minutes at altitudes between 99 and 1,200 miles. The electronics of the satellite will be powered by solar panels.
UMass Lowell may turn to various printing services to create materials informing the community of this special funding from the Undergraduate Student Instrument Project of NASA, which enables college students to participate in real-world opportunities that are relevant to the missions of the agency.
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