With a deafening roar and blinding blast, the first Bobcat began its journey to space on Oct. 2 — that is, the Bobcat-1 satellite, which will study global navigation satellite systems.
Developed by engineering students at the Ohio University Avionics Engineering Center for NASA’s 2018 CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), part of the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program, Bobcat-1 was the first project of its kind at the university.
NASA’s program encourages exploration in the STEM field, providing low-cost opportunities for experimental research led by nonprofits and educational organizations. CSLI, led by NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, has selected 220 CubeSats and successfully launched 101 since its inception, as of May 28, 2020. Bobcat-1 was one of just 11 selected in 2018.
After two years of tireless work and anticipation, the satellite finally saw action when launched into space early this month. Ryan McKnight, a graduate student studying electrical engineering, and three other OU students working on Bobcat-1 witnessed from a distance their cube satellite, or CubeSat, launch from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.
“It was a great experience. Not only because I've never seen a rocket launch before, but to see something that you have done be launched,” McKnight said.
Though small — Bobcat-1 measured just 12”x4”x4” — CubeSats have strong capabilities and are typically used for experimental research and to demonstrate spacecraft technologies. This particular satellite had been selected by NASA to study Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), which exist to synchronize the varying international satellite systems between countries.
“The GPS satellites synchronize with the other GPS satellites, but they're not synchronizing with the Russia-Chinese satellite,” McKnight said. “So our CubeSat will attempt to figure out how out of sync the different GNSS clocks are, it'll find the time difference between, like, GPS and GLONASS, which is the Russian system.”
This technology currently exists in the form of large ground networks, but this method is costly and is far more complicated.
“What Bobcat-1 is trying to do is to make the experimental attempt to do the same thing with a much more inexpensive and easier to manage satellite in low Earth orbit,” Brian Peters, a graduate student studying electrical engineering, said.
The project team included McKnight, Peters and two other students, Greg Jenkins and Kevin Croissant, and the project was supervised by Dr. Sabrina Ugazio, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology.
The process began with an initial proposal to NASA explaining how the Bobcat-1 satellite would test a solution that would decrease the amount of infrastructure needed for global navigation satellite systems. Once the team was selected, the process of ordering and assembling hardware, creating flight software and building the ground station, located on the Stocker Center rooftop, began.
One of the biggest challenges that the team identified was the lack of experience on projects of this type. As an unprecedented initiative at the university, there was no pre-existing foundation to build off of. The students relied on information and experience from outside research groups that have relationships with OU’s Avionics Engineering Center to answer questions and guide the process.
Of the four, Croissant was the only one who worked on the satellite from proposal to launch.
“The Bobcat-1 satellite has been an incredible project to work on,” Croissant said in a press release. “I am so proud to see the team persevere through many challenges on a tight timeline and deliver Ohio University's first satellite to our launch partners.”
Bobcat-1 successfully arrived at the International Space Station after its launch, and is set for release into low-earth orbit on Nov. 5 of this year. The next step for the students is to begin collecting and analyzing data from Bobcat-1 in orbit.
The life of the satellite is a mere nine months, however, that is long enough to determine whether the experimental approach is successful.
Peters is hopeful for the future.
“We'd really like to try to get an ongoing CubeSat program here at OU,” Peters said. “So we would like to try to set up all the relationships we can so that we can bring more CubeSats in and maybe get in a dedicated lab setup.”
Those interested in following Bobcat-1’s journey and operations, photos and NASA/ISS videos can find updates on the team’s Twitter account, @Bobcat1_Cubesat
