CubeSat

Photo: NASA

The CSI CubeSat team is NASA-approved for launch!

Building the first satellite designed by Columbia undergraduates to be launched into low Earth orbit.

Introduction

CSI’s CubeSat team is composed of mostly undergraduate students working on designing, building, and launching small satellites into low earth orbit. Our first satellite and Columbia’s first ever student-built satellite, LionCub, was developed in collaboration with 5 universities. In partnership with the Schiminovich Astronomy & Instrumentation Lab, we are currently developing LIONESS, which will observe H-alpha emission from Galactic nebulae, the interstellar medium and the circumgalactic medium (CGM) around nearby galaxies.

Mission Goals

  • Critical Design Review by the end of fall semester to finalize the full system design

  • Hardware orders complete by spring break

  • FlatSat and Engineering model done by the end of spring semester to prepare for integration in the following semester

Related Skills

  • Computer Science, CAD, Thermal Simulation, Optics, Soldering, PCB Board Design, etc.

Achievements

  • Launched Columbia’s first student-led satellite.

Mission Directors

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Ruimian Zheng

CC 2027

Physics

[email protected]

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Maryam Naser

SEAS 2027

Mechanical Engineering

[email protected]

Resources

Notion page

Recent News

Cubesat Proposal Submitted to NASA posted in cubesat

November 20, 2015

Good news! We’ve submitted our 60+ page proposal to NASA today for the Student Flight Research Opportunity (SFRO). Many thanks to all the team members who’ve contributed to the creation of this proposal! Our cubesat experiments will test the tensile properties of glass, and the viability of certain radiation shielding on commercial electronics. We’ll keep you updated on our results.

-Julia