So that’s exactly what we did,” says AAE senior Andrew Binder, who was project manager last spring after being assistant project manager for a semester. So if you bounce them off of something, they’ll cool down, they’ll lose all that energy. “If you bounce around the air molecules a whole bunch, you smack them off a couple different things, they’re going to use a lot of energy, a lot of speed. They did that by using a diffusion chamber. So students had to design, essentially, a frame to not only protect the sensors but also cool down the gas. Designing the pressure sensors presented a considerable challenge: The incredible heat generated by gases once the satellite hits the atmosphere could potentially burn up the sensors. Purdue’s sensor platform includes three pressure sensors on the front plate of the satellite as well as a sensor that will measure temperature and heat flux. It can help you model where that’s going to happen and how.” It can also help you if you aren’t trying to reenter but you want to burn up in the atmosphere. “What that will do, if we have more confidence in those models, then we can actually reduce the amount of thermal protection that we put on spacecraft on reentry bodies, which will reduce the mass and costs. “We’re trying to get a better understanding of the aerothermal environment, at low altitudes for a spacecraft, really high altitudes when you’re looking at the atmosphere,” Goggin says. After that, Purdue worked on ground testing as well as helping prepare for post-processing of data recorded during the experiment. He helped develop mission requirements, concept generation and selection and some prototyping before Purdue delivered its payload to Illinois over winter break last year. He presented papers at two conferences in 2017, one at the AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites and also at the International Astronautical Congress. McClain Goggin has been involved with the project for about five semesters, the first two as project manager while he was an undergrad at Purdue and the rest as graduate mentor. The SASSI2 project was implemented through a multi-semester AAE450/490 CubeSat design, build, and fly course that included more than 40 students, starting in Summer 2016 through last spring. It’s the first instrument for an orbital spacecraft that was built by AAE students,” Alexeenko says. Roger Chaffee will lift up the SASSI2 instrument to space. “For Purdue team, it’s especially meaningful that the S.S. Zach Putnam, an assistant professor at Illinois, is the PI for SASSI2, and Deborah Levin, a professor, is Co-PI. David Spencer, an associate professor in AAE, is co-investigator. Once combined with chemical species information from onboard spectrometers, this data will enable scientists and engineers to determine the chemical reaction rates needed to validate their models.Īlina Alexeenko, a professor in AAE, is the principal investigator for the Purdue science instruments. The sensor platform will measure bulk flow properties as well as ambient conditions. Purdue’s sensor platform will take advantage of the natural reentry experienced by all CubeSats. SASSI2 was developed with students from the University of Illinois through NASA’s Undergraduate Spacecraft Instrument Program (USIP). Part of the scientific payload on the resupply mission was built by students from Chaffee’s alma mater, Purdue.Ī team of undergraduate students in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics developed an advanced pressure sensor to show the density of the atmosphere at reentry for a 3U CubeSat, Student Aerothermal Spectrometer of Illinois and Indiana (SASSI2).
![capsat undergrad students prepare satellite launch capsat undergrad students prepare satellite launch](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/kansan.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/ae/9aeffbf6-41b2-11ec-9f17-b3a31377a0af/618b00861b187.image.png)
Roger Chaffee, Northrop Grumman’s recently renamed NG-11 Cygnus spacecraft, is scheduled to launch atop an Antares rocket April 17 to deliver supplies and scientific experiments to the International Space Station.
![capsat undergrad students prepare satellite launch capsat undergrad students prepare satellite launch](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/2019/04/26/NPPP/ghows-LK-87714412-4401-44fa-e053-0100007f847b-0835ca85.jpeg)
Purdue students joined with students from the University of Illinois on a 3U CubeSat, Student Aerothermal Spectrometer of Illinois and Indiana (SASSI2).