AEROSP 495 and 740 — Fall Launch
Rajiv Govindjee, center, a masters student in aerospace engineering, and Bennett Lawson, right, a masters student in space engineering, make final preparations for the launch of their teams student-designed cubesat on Tuesday, December 6, 2022. Govindjee, and Lawson and students from Associate Professor James Cutler’s AEROSP 495 and 740 classes are launching four helium-filled balloons each carrying a student-designed cubesat Plumb Lake County Park near Sturgis, Michigan.
The goal of the courses is to give students the opportunity to design and build complex satellite-like flight vehicles. The high-altitude balloons, which are filled with helium, rise into the stratosphere emulating some key aspects of spaceflight. According to Graduate Student Instructor Gage Bergman, "The stratosphere is an extreme environment, it experiences vast temperature differences, and also requires students to develop robust and reliable systems because once a balloon is released, there is no way to retrieve it - just like actual spaceflight.” Bergman is a masters student in aerospace engineering.
Photo: Brenda Ahearn/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Communications and Marketing
AEROSP 495 and 740 — Fall Launch
Rajiv Govindjee, center, a masters student in aerospace engineering, and Bennett Lawson, right, a masters student in space engineering, make final preparations for the launch of their teams student-designed cubesat on Tuesday, December 6, 2022. Govindjee, and Lawson and students from Associate Professor James Cutler’s AEROSP 495 and 740 classes are launching four helium-filled balloons each carrying a student-designed cubesat Plumb Lake County Park near Sturgis, Michigan.
The goal of the courses is to give students the opportunity to design and build complex satellite-like flight vehicles. The high-altitude balloons, which are filled with helium, rise into the stratosphere emulating some key aspects of spaceflight. According to Graduate Student Instructor Gage Bergman, "The stratosphere is an extreme environment, it experiences vast temperature differences, and also requires students to develop robust and reliable systems because once a balloon is released, there is no way to retrieve it - just like actual spaceflight.” Bergman is a masters student in aerospace engineering.
Photo: Brenda Ahearn/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Communications and Marketing