Dr. Jordi Puig-Suari was the guest for this Space Show program. Dr. Puig-Suari is the CubeSat Project advisor at Cal Poly University and this program was devoted to CubeSat projects, both university and otherwise. We started the discussion with the basics of cubesats and the Cal Poly program. Jordi also gave us his personal report on watching their university payload, along with many other universities, destruct on a failed Dnieper launch about 18 months ago. This is a failed launch description you will not want to miss. Much time was spent discussing the cost of a CubeSat program and the needed launches. At this time, such launches are around $40-50L and there is a backlog of 25-50 CubeSat projects that could easily be put together if there was a way to fly them to space. Unfortunately, the rides are scarce. In response to questions, Jordi explained the academic process of going through ITAR which was quite smooth and easy compared to some of the commercial horror stories we all know about. As part of our CubeSat discussion, Jordi explained how a satellite mission is decided upon and implemented. Another listener asked what grade the student has to be in to be involved in these projects and we learned that at least at Cal Poly all students can be involved and sophomores have been involved in some of the actual project management, etc. These programs are opened to a wide variety of students as you will hear. Linda asked a question about being able to launch a small CubeSat on a suborbital rocket given its light weight mass. Again, you will want to hear the answer and explanation. Several listeners and even a Mom emailed in questions about the academic program, how to prepare for such a program if one is still in high school, and even asking what the students are like socially that engage in this type of engineering CubeSat program. This is a comprehensive discussion of student satellite programs, especially cubesats, with crossover information on commercial CubeSat launches and projects. To get more information, visit www.cubesat.org. Click on the contact page to send a question, comment or to ask for information from Dr. Jordi Puig-Suari, http://cubesat.atl.calpoly.edu/pages/home/contact-us.php. Jordi's email address as provided on this page is jpuigsua@calpoly.edu.
Guest
The Space Show
