Thanga and Furfaro Guide Student-Led CatSat Mission Selected by NASA

AME assistant professor Jekan Thanga and SIE professor Roberto Furfaro are the principal investigators on a project that will give student teams hands-on spacecraft hardware development experience.

NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative recently selected CatSat – a 6U CubeSat to be built on campus by students from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, AME, astronomy, computer science, and SIE – to fly as auxiliary payload aboard future space missions.

"This is a great opportunity for students to get hands-on experience building a spacecraft and running a space mission," said Tanner Campbell, an AME doctoral student serving as project manager for CatSat.