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Show Signpost Friday, June 6, 1986 11 s h Space program grows by Nick Licina Contributing Writer A little over a year ago, the first NASA Get-Away-Special (GAS) can-nister was opened and NUSAT I was launched into space. The date was April 29, 1985. Three days later, the ground station located in the electronics building at Weber State College made contact. It was 7 p.m. MST on May 2, 1985. Today, NUSAT II, the first student-built satellite by any college or university in the United States, is being assembled here at Weber State. When NUSAT I was launched from the space shuttle Challenger, the students and faculty at WSC, along with the personnel from local industry and government, were all proud and excited about the event. The focus of NUSAT I was conceived by Charles Bonsall of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Nusat I , the first satellite to be built in the state of Utah, was developed for an FAA requirement. The need was to replace a time-consuming and costly radar calibration and adjustment sequences. The solution was considered to be a low earth orbit satellite system that would provide the beam characterization responses needed without interfering or delaying valuable radar-tracking time. Although the achievements and notoriety of NUSAT I has been outstanding, the NUSAT II senior projects group felt that one vital component was missing. The mechanical part of the first satellite was not made at Weber State. The design of NUSAT I dictated that certain machinery presses would have to be done off campus by contributing industries. As it turned out, nearly all the mechanical components were made outside of the college. But early in the 1985-86 Senior Projects, the NUSAT II group in the Manufacturing Engineering Technology Department, along with the faculty advisor John Boyer, determined that an achieveable goal was to build a satellite on the Weber State campus. With the assistance of Weber State professor R. Parker and Thiokol's George Yurick, the design was developed. Many other drawing revisions followed, and further requirements from the Electronics department were included. In early November of 1985, the NUSAT II group had prepared a "flight article" which could be made in our shop. During the Christmas breakm material was ordered, and throughout the winter and spring quarters, many hours were put into editing drawings, writing numerical control programs, and ordering machinery parts. Just after spring break, Steve Rager, the NUSAT II project leader, presented the prototype to the Center for Aerospace Technology (CAST). CAST Satellite project nears completion (Cont. from front page) the increase of space inside the satellite. "There will be about a 60 percent increase of vacuum inside and a 75 percent increase in surface area for solar panels," said Twiggs. Project officials say that the added space will allow for more backup systems, which NUSAT I did not have. A camera will also be mounted on the satellite to take pictures of the earth from space. 1 NUSAT 1 is expected to stay in orbit until October of this year, according to Twiggs. The NUSAT II satellite development has gone smoother than NUSAT I because those involved have a better idea of how to adapt it to the students, Twiggs said. The NUSAT I project was a learning experience for the students, and they are now better prepared to make improvements on NUSAT II. The cost for the first satellite was an estimated 1.4 million dollars and, according to project officials, much of the money and man hours were donated by industry. "This project wouldn't be possible without that type of joint effort," Boyer said. The cost for NUSAT II will be less than that of NUSAT I, according to Twiggs. He said the fact that the students have learned through trial and error had kept the cost down. Twiggs said they are working on a grant for the project. The first satellite was sucessfully launched from the space shuttle Challenger oyer a year ago. College officials have reserved a spot on a future space shuttle flight as a "get away special" project, but say an exact date will depend on when NASA resumes shuttle flights. J I .- v ' . s : ... 1 i i-s .-. - , Featured above from L-R is Tom Fenton, Fred Stringham, George Wilson, Bill Johnson, faculty advisor; Steve Rager, project leader; Peter Ogumike, Rick Hallows and Lyle Peterson. is a non-profit consortium of governmental, business, and educational professionals, working with Weber State on space development projects. The NUSAT II senior projects group proved that they could deliver a well-designed product which was accessible to a variety of electronic packages. The prototype presented to CAST had 30 percent more volume while still maintaining the weight characteristics prescribed by NASA. A detailed finite element analysis on the ANSYS system at Weber State suggests that the "flight article," which is due to be finished in June, will pass the other NASA requirements in a shake test later thissummer. r50 Journals M r-n n o- (tk , off Graduation and Gift books HAPPINESS ISA JOURNEY "sFrKir. AND FINDING JOY AND CONTKNTMLNT IV 1 WORDS OF COLD Weber State BooEtstore |