University of Kentucky - College of Engineering - News

Space Systems Laboratory hosts pre-launch open house

Date - November 06, 2009

This week, two projects will begin their journey from the University of Kentucky College of Engineering into space. And lucky CoE family members have an opportunity to “make their mark” in history.

The Sub-Orbital CubeSat Experimental Mission, (SOCEM) will be heading to NASA Goddard/Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island Virginia to be integrated aboard a 40 foot, two-stage sounding rocket. SOCEM consists of hardware developed by UK students to interface a standardized satellite launcher inside a NASA sounding rocket. It will be used to launch two student built satellites, one of which, called ADAMASat, was also developed by UK students. SOCEM is set to launch in January of 2010 and will reach an altitude of over 300 kilometers where the spacecraft will be "visible" to the satellite antennas atop FPAT to gather flight data.

The NanoRack/CubeLab system is a new project to design a standardized locker system to interface small experiments in the International Space Station. The first NanoRack and the first CubeLabs, developed by UK students, will go to the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville Alabama to undergo a battery of tests in preparation for a flight to the International Space Station on the Space Shuttle and Russian Progress launch vehicles in early 2010. The first CubeLab will make a 30-60 day visit to the ISS before being returned to UK for analysis. During that time it will be used to train astronauts on the assembly, operation, and data transfer for CubeLabs and will gather baseline data on the effects of radiation on flash memory devices. The rack system will remain on the space station permanently supporting a wide variety of experiments in the coming years and serving as a little patch of the Blue Grass in space.

Many students, staff and faculty in the college of engineering have contributed to these projects over the past few years. To thank everyone and to mark this special occasion, the Space Systems Laboratory (559FPAT) will have an "open house" Friday, Nov 6 from 1-3PM. Visitors will be able to leave their fingerprints on the end plate of the sub-orbital ADAMASat satellite and on the NanoRacks assembly and CubeLabs before they are handled by the astronauts in space when they install it in the ISS.