Monday, August 14, 2006

Cubesat Conference

Attending this year's cubesat conference was quite interesting. With the unsuccessful launch of our two satellites only a few weeks previously, has caused me to reflect as to what exactly I am doing here. There were funds left over from the program, which were to be used with operations related to tracking the satellites. Of course, we would not receive money for the actual act, because these are amateur satellites, but, this was for building any ground support equiptment and other such tasks needed.

I have come to a few conclusions. The program at the University of Arizona is largely dead. I don't know what can be done to save it. I have, however, come up with a few ideas. The best idea which I have is related to building a class which has the purpose to build satellites, and teach students how to do so. I don't know what the interest would be, but it has the potential to be quite useful Other than that, I'm not sure what can happen to the program... It's so sad, after so many years of fighting, we've just died out... If only we can get the support from the college. I have decided that I will write to our new college president, in support of the program. I'm not sure what else I might be able to do, but, that will likely be my start.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keeping a program alive is, in my opinion, probably the hardest part of being a cubesat developer. The constant churn of students as they come through the program is pretty brutal, requiring excellent documentation to maintain any forward progress as people move in and out. The excessive launch delays on DNEPR 04/05 also hurt, as it meant people built satellites and graduated before they launched.

It's a shame I didn't make it to SmallSat--stuck in the lab building CP3--but it's good to hear you're willing to give this a shot. It's an exciting time for CubeSats, and I hope you can keep things going and find another project. Always feel free to leverage the community for advice / options / etc...

nvprnth said...

hey i am praneeth from india in the map of cube sats i found no one from india is there any chance for me or any of us to join in? myself doin my bachelor of technology in electronics and communication engineering 3 rd year,hope u be sucessful in ur prjct,plzzzzz reply me nvpraneeth@gmail.com plzz ignore this if u feel incomfotable