Search
Search
News
Multimedia
Sports
Arts & Culture
Opinion
Subscribe
Life & Times
Fine Arts
Features
Send a News Tip
100 Years
Archive
Advertise
Donate

Subscribeto The Echo

The Echo

Thursday, May 26, 2022 Print Edition

Donate

  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Arts & Culture
  • Life & Times
  • Features
  • Fine Arts
  • Multimedia
  • Archive
  • 100 Years
  • Advertise
  • Send a Tip
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Arts & Culture
  • Life & Times
  • Features
  • Fine Arts
  • Multimedia
  • Archive
  • 100 Years
  • Advertise
  • Send a News Tip
Search

Subscribe

Subscribe to The Echo

The Echo aims to represent the views of diverse voices on Taylor University's campus fairly and without bias and to be a vehicle of accurate and pertinent information to the student body. The Echo also aims to be a forum that fosters healthy discussion about relevant issues, acting as a catalyst for change on our campus.

Fill out my online form.

4/25/2019, 8:18pm

Taylor goes to space

By Ellie Tiemens
Taylor goes to space
Rayce Patterson
Computer science and engineering students made Taylor history with the launch of their nanosatellite. Photo provided by Bill Bauson.

Share

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Mail
  • Print

Ellie Tiemens | The Echo

Taylor University students and faculty recently partnered with NearSpace Launch Inc. to make history in sending nanosatellites to space.

On April 17 at 4:46 p.m., computer science students, engineering students and faculty watched as nearly two years their of hard work was launched into space.

"I was ecstatic when I heard our satellite was successfully retrieving data," senior Jason Argo, the satellite program manager during the 2017-2018 school year, said. "This will go down as the coolest project I worked on in college."

This began as a senior project a few years ago. More recently, Taylor students partnered with a consortium of space and technology companies to build a nanosatellite - or a small satellite that can transmit data from low space orbit.

These nanonsatellites, called ThinSats, were able to be launched into space to collect data for them.

One company that they worked closely with is NearSpace Launch Inc., an Upland-based company founded by Jeff Dailey, a former research engineer at Taylor and Hank Voss, a former professor of engineering and physics at Taylor.

Students also worked with The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority in Wallops Island, Virginia, where the rocket was launched.

Another company, Northrop Grumman, provided the rocket in which the ThinSats were launched.

Taylor, as well as other colleges and universities around the country, took advantage of the opportunity provided by these companies that work for students to send things into space more easily.

However, the team at Taylor did things a little differently.

Where many schools were given parts of the satellite to build - sort of like a Lego set - Taylor students successfully designed and built their own payload board on the satellite. In doing this, they were able to make their ThinSat do whatever they wanted it to do.

One thing they added to their satellite are luminescent LED lights that will blink "Taylor- PhyxtGears" in Morse code.

The successful completion of building their own ThinSat and the launch last week is an exciting event for the engineering community at Taylor.

Taylor is making nanosatellite history as this is the first time the ThinSat design has flown in space and the Taylor satellites have the only student payload boards that were designed from scratch.

"It's an exciting project," Bill Bauson, assistant professor of systems and one faculty member heavily involved in this project, said. "This is the cutting edge of this technology . . . this would actually be the only time that students have tried anything like this and actually got it into space."

Additionally, this project provided a unique learning experience for the students involved.

They had the chance to not only design and build the satellite, write code for the program, get exposure to the system design process and go through design reviews with NASA, but many also witnessed their hard work being launched into space.

For Argo, this project helped him discover the career path he wants to take. He said it also helped him grow professionally.

"Under the direction of professor Bauson and other CS/Engineer (faculty), our Taylor team was able to successfully build and launch a satellite with a team of primarily undergraduate students," Argo said. "This speaks to the quality of Taylor's faculty, students, and opportunities available under the Computer Science and Engineering programs."

Share



Related Stories

Screen Shot 2022-05-18 at 8.40.59 PM.png

Professional Writing conference to happen in July

By Becah Schwartz

A number of people work behind the scenes to put together the Commencement ceremony.

Commencement: Before crossing the stage

By Marissa Muljat

The Oct. 26, 1990 edition of The Echo printed a photo of the infamous Trojan Horse used during the ICC competition.

Faded tradition revisited by Taylor alumnus

By Will Riddell


Most Popular


5/9/2022, 11:00am

New gas station fills vacant spot

By Payne Moses

Owners hope to bring new offerings


4/28/2022, 6:10pm

U.S. Supreme Court decides to not hear Gordon lawsuit for now


5/16/2022, 1:00pm

Taylor University prepares for 2022 commencement


5/16/2022, 1:00pm

Faded tradition revisited by Taylor alumnus


The Echo To Homepage
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Covers
  • Awards
  • Get Involved

All Rights Reserved

© Copyright 2022 The Echo

Powered by
Solutions by The State News.

Taylor University