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Announcing STI Summer STEM COURSE 2017

4/5/2017

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The STEM Trajectory Initiative is pleased to announce the 2017 STI Summer STEM Course, hosted by Valley High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The course will kick off a 3-year effort to design, build, launch and operate a CubeSAT; a small satellite that will eventually orbit the earth; providing student groups and amateur radio operators around the globe an opportunity to communicate through the satellite via amateur radio, receive telemetry from the satellite and analyze data associated with position, orientation, velocity, temperature and other critical parameters.  The final CubeSAT will also be able to send back pictures and video from student-built environmental experiments. 

The 2017 STI Summer STEM Course will focus on building a "Proof of Concept" CubeSAT; a device very similar to an actual CubeSAT, with all the same functionality, but built with readily available components, in order to implement and test the basic design concepts required for the final product.  Testing of the Proof of Concept CubeSAT will begin during the course, and will continue utilizing  High Altitude Balloon and lab testing through the end of 2018.  The students will receive an equal amount of conventional instruction and lab time; with the lab time devoted to hands-on Project Based Learning.  The education will be specifically focused on all of the essential technologies required to design, build and test various CubeSAT subsystems.  

Starting in 2018, the work shifts gears to focus on building the prototype CubeSAT, which will look and feel just like the production version.  The prototype CubeSAT program will begin the necessary environmental and operational testing to make sure that the design is good enough to withstand the rigors of launch and operation in space.  2019 will be the year that the "production" configuration satellite will be built, tested, qualified and prepared for launch to the International Space Station, where it will be eventually deployed into Low Earth Orbit.

The 2017 STI Summer STEM Course will be held for 3 intense weeks, 5 days per week, 10 hours per day.  The students that are accepted and that complete the course will receive dual college / high school credit, and will have learned enough electronics and radio theory to be able to take and pass the examination for an FCC Technician Class License in the Amateur Radio Service, a license which is required to test and operate the satellite.  The course starts June 12, 2017 and runs through June 30, 2017.  As a bonus, the students will be participating in the annual 2017 American Radio Relay League's annual Field Day, where they will set up and operate HF, VHF and UHF amateur radio stations, including a satellite ground station, allowing students to communicate through exiting CubeSATs already in orbit.

For further information, please contact:
Alma Ripley at ripley_a@aps.edu
​Chuck Newman at newman_c@aps.edu
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