THE PARASAT SPACE FLIGHT PROGRAM

The ParaSat program, a new university- based satellite development initiative, is described. The goal of this program is to produce student managed and engineered satellites capable of supporting both education and research. Educationally, these projects expose students to the following: 1) a range of subsystem technologies necessary to develop such a spacecraft, 2) a range of lifecycle phases including conception, fabrication, and test, and 3) a realistic design team environment that includes the satisfaction of a principal investigator, the rational defense of design choices, and involvement in a team enterprise. From a research perspective, the resulting spacecraft provide inexpensive and rapidly developed platforms for space based research and/or technology demonstration; these platforms, however, are limited in capability and have a lower than normal reliability. Compared to existing academic satellite development programs, the ParaSat program has been designed to operate with minimal resources: less than $5,000 cash, less than one year development time, undergraduate students with no formal space technology background, and little to no laboratory space. The design of this program and results from past and current projects are presented.