Students working on SlugSat are designing what is known as a CubeSat: a small satellite roughly the size of a loaf of bread, which we plan to launch roughly 250 miles (400 km) above Earth’s surface. We are building the spacecraft from the ground up, and we’ve formed a highly interdisciplinary team in order to do it. Student members have backgrounds in physics, software, mechanical design, and electrical engineering, and continue to broaden their skill sets with each new challenge. Our goal is to give UC Santa Cruz students and scientists a platform in low Earth orbit to further atmospheric research and lay a foundation for space-based engineering at UCSC.
Beyond giving undergraduates hands-on experience, SlugSat is designed to serve both UCSC scientists and the greater community. Our satellite will carry two payloads: a student-built HF linear transponder for amateur radio use, and a terrestrial gamma-ray flash experiment provided by the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics. From these efforts, SlugSat is paving the way for an ongoing space program at UCSC and is finally providing students with access to aerospace engineering. Every aspect of this project is student-driven, from design to management to execution. Learn more about our project by looking through our website or contacting us below!
SlugSat is in its fourth year right now, and we are developing the engineering prototype of our first cubesat, While we are currently a senior design project within the ECE department at BSOE, SlugSat will be transitioning to a club next year in order to allow individuals not in the ECE capstone courses to get involved.
