Design Experiences with a Student Satellite Program

The NevadaSat program began in 2002, and is an ongoing, multi-faceted program, providing students with high-impact exposure to the aerospace fields.The program includes activities in scientific ballooning, rocketry, and robotics.These are conducted for their own merits, but each program also moves us closer to our long-range goal of producing and operating a student satellite in Earth orbit, for the purpose of preparing students for the aerospace-industry workforce.The student experience is largely based in design projects, and design competitions.In some cases, activities are coupled with "special topics" courses, and in others, as extracurricular projects.We have found that these interdisciplinary experiences provide a high-impact design experience that augments the more traditional design activities in the various engineering curricula.These activities are conducted statewide in Nevada, with participation of students and faculty from