Students design, launch tiny satellite

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - A group of students, former students and professors stood quietly in an electronics-filled room on a recent Tuesday, intently listening for contact from a 4-inch cubed satellite hurtling miles overhead.

Those gathered comprised the Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment, or CAPE, and the small cubed bundle of electronics is CAPE1, a small satellite designed and built by students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

The project is part of a program called Cubesat, which allows universities to cheaply launch satellites, something that gives students world class experience, said professor Robert Henry, head of the Department of Electric and Computer Engineering.

CAPE1 is the first satellite designed, built and launched by a Louisiana university, and one of the first in the Southern region, Henry said.

CAPE1 was launched on April 17, along with six other university satellites from a site in Kazahkstan using a modified former intercontinental ballistic missile.

CAPE team members were waiting to make contact with CAPE1 while it passed from the North Pole south across North America, where it would be sliding into range of the antenna set up on top of Madison Hall on the ULL campus.

Amateur radio operators in Europe had picked up CAPE1's beacon as it flew over their area.

With CAPE1 approaching, the team gathered around the computer screens while a team member fiddled with the dials of a radio receiver, searching the frequency for the telltale beeps of CAPE1.

For a few minutes, the radio picked up only static, hiss and whines.

Conversations died down while the team waited, fiddled with the radio and waited some more.

Finally, a steady stream of beeps and chirps broke through the static.

"There it is," Henry said. The team exchanged handshakes and high-fives.

The beeps were Morse code that let everyone listening know the satellite's name and other technical information such as temperature, Henry said.

A second transmission sends data more quickly, more like a dial-up modem, which allows for more detailed technical data to be sent, Henry said.

CAPE1's signals told the team that its solar panels were charging its onboard batteries, which is good news, Henry said.

CAPE1's true mission is providing experience, not many engineering students get the real-world experience of building and launching a satellite, Henry said.

In the future, the CAPE team could build a satellite that does more than transmit information about itself, perhaps relaying data from sensors in the Gulf of Mexico, Henry said.