Acquire -Analyze -Apply Using CubeSats (A3Sat)
The rapid development of CubeSats over the past two decades (1999-present), from research to significant mission integration has occurred. The capabilities of CubeSats continues to expand and are being deployed in a wide range of sophisticated scientific and commercial missions, demonstrating that CubeSats have earned a legitimate place in the New Space Ecosystem. Using CubeSats as an authentic instructional technology can offer numerous benefits and unique learning opportunities. CubeSats are small, low-cost satellites that provide hands-on experience and engage students in real-world space applications.
As a result, authentic experiences can no longer wait to be explored only at the college or university level, they must begin in the pre-college community. The A3Sat project has resulted in broadening participation and creating diversity within these communities due to the interdisciplinary nature and requirements of such an Integrated Earth SySTEM project.
The A3Sat project allows students to build a CubeSat Emulator consisting of a 3D printed form factor, multiple sensors, solar panels, and communication, complete with tutorial assembly videos, and User Manual. The A3Sat Emulator is a Tier 2 CubeSat kit in a 1U (10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm) form factor that closely resembles and demonstrates the functionalities of a flight-model CubeSat-class satellite. The emulator kit and the accompanying ground station provide not only an authentic, well-vetted, emulator for students, but also fulfill a major objective of the A3Sat Project — broadening participation in STEM through the use of CubeSats.
The design and creation of the A3Sat was well vetted collaborating with the US Naval Academy’s SmallSat Laboratory. It has been adopted as a “Tier One” Laboratory Experience. In addition, it has been piloted in numerous schools across the USA and internationally accomplishing both the technical and academic goals. A3Sat is being used in the “CubeSats in Peru”, a “One Voice for Change” project. It has been used in Kenya in their Kenya Space Agency and GLOBE Kenya, been introduced in Brazil Science Days, and will be introduced South Africa’s National Space Council in 2024. Working with NASA GLOBE Mission Earth (NASA Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) #: NNX16AC54A), and funding from the NJ Space Grant Consortium, numerous high schools have successfully engaged in assembling the A3Sat and several have conducted successful High-Altitude Balloon (HAB) launches (reaching over 100,000 ft.) validating its ability to collect and transmit data, to the A3Sat Ground Station. The Ground Station uses an antenna developed for the pre-college community that not only tracks the A3Sat, but is also capable of receiving direct read-out data/imagery from NOAA Polar Orbiting Satellites capturing the location’s view from space.
A design goal was to transmit data while airborne to a ground station simulating a true remote sensor. By also integrating the A3Sat Ground Station architecture to the curriculum, students will Acquire, Analyze and Apply systems, sensor, and potential payload data. The A3Sat ground station is a desktop software application that communicates directly with an “orbiting” A3Sat and transmits requests and receives data in real-time. Integrated within the ground station architecture are numerous features to enable a greater analysis of obtained data, such as real-time and interactive graphs of all variables/data.
Using the A3Sat Ground Station students will Acquire, Analyze and Apply systems, sensor, and potential payload data. Utilizing three major themes, or perhaps operational tasks, used by remote sensing professionals in the Geosciences (i.e. Acquire, Analyze, and Apply), the A3Sat Project has introduced pre-college students to the importance and applications of Earth SySTEM, specifically GLOBE Observer environmental ground-validation protocols, as well as engineering, technology, and mathematics components generally not found in the pre-college community. It is a vehicle for transitioning the ground observations and measurements to a global satellite-based data set and/or imagery, all which support current and future Earth Observing Satellite Missions.
Beyond the challenge to build the A3Sat, is conducting a HAB launch. In preparation for any HAB launch, atmospheric conditions are a critical part of the decision making. Using the GLOBE Observer App, ground data such as cloud layers, types of clouds and ground conditions are recorded and sent to a GLOBE Program server. Satellite imagery from either a polar orbiting or GOES satellite (or both) of their location at launch time. The A3Sat creates a vertical profile of the atmosphere as it ascends and descends with GPS tracking. Thus, A3Sat will fulfill the “Space to Earth: Earth to Space” (SEES) Model of investigating Planet Earth from top down, and bottom up.
CubeSats are being developed and launched into space by space agencies such as NASA, NOAA, SpaceX and others, universities, and pre-college students around the world. There are pre-college and college STEM education programs designing “space-ready” CubeSats with the hope of launching into space. However, there remains limited access to space, and the costs prohibit such endeavors for the majority of schools in the United States, and in other countries around the world.
The A3Sat program has transitioned students from collecting ground data, using satellite and remote sensing imagery and data, into the world of building small satellites and obtaining data from the onboard sensors. The A3Sat V 2.0 was designed to authentically replicate building a CubeSat for pre-college and college students as an authentic STEM program with direct real-world applications.
Overall, CubeSats, and SmallSats, offer a unique platform for experiential learning, empowering students to actively participate in the entire lifecycle of a satellite mission, from concept to operations to data interpretation. They provide invaluable opportunities for students to gain practical skills, foster innovation, and contribute to scientific research in space.
The data and/or imagery provides a wide range of innovative and transformative opportunities to gain experience, develop proficiencies, expand skills in data literacy, and explore career pathways, that are not readily available to the pre-college community, thus, broadening participation in STEM oriented career pathways that incorporate a Career Technical Education (CTE) instructional model educational approach to learning.
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