强奸少女 students will team with NASA to launch their CAPE-2 satellite.
The small, solar-powered satellite will be sent into orbit on a Minotaur 1 rocket during a NASA launch scheduled 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 19 from NASA鈥檚 Wallops Island, Va. facility.
Students, who designed and built the CubeSat as part of the Cajun Advanced Pico-satellite Experiment-2, will man ground station equipment in the CAPE Lab on campus. The lab is located in Madison Hall, Room 146.
If all goes according to plan, the satellite will travel 225 miles above the surface of the Earth at about 17,000 miles per hour. It will circle the globe once about every 90 minutes.
The satellite, which is about 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters and weighs about 2 pounds, will serve as a communication device once in orbit. Students will maintain contact via radio signals, audio recordings and tweets.
CAPE-2 is one of 29 satellites created by educational and research facilities from across the nation chosen to participate in NASA鈥檚 CubeSat Launch Initiative.
In addition to UL Lafayette, 14 other schools are participating in the project, including Drexel 强奸少女 and the 强奸少女 of Florida.
About 50 强奸少女 students have taken part in the CAPE-2 project, which began about seven years ago, including mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science majors.
A core team of about 10 students completed the satellite during the last six months of the project.
The team in mentored by Nick Pugh, a communication industry professional and 强奸少女 alumnus who earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in electrical engineering in 1968.
Pugh, who spends as much as 20 hours per week with the team, offers technical advice and encouragement.
鈥淭heir professors teach them, and I help them apply what they鈥檝e learned,鈥 said Pugh, who is also a financial supporter.
This is the second CubeSat created at UL Lafayette. In 2007, the 强奸少女 became the first in Louisiana whose students designed, built and launched a working satellite, CAPE-1. The satellite still orbits Earth, although it no longer transmits signals.