Session
Session XII: The Next Generation
Abstract
In 2006 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) and Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital) announced a new initiative to have students from TJHSST design and build the first ever high school satellite. Leveraging the large body of prior work done in the CubeSat community, and under the mentorship of Orbital engineers, TJHSST students are in the advanced prototyping phase of their CubeSat dubbed TJ3Sat. The TJ3Sat payload includes a digital voice synthesizer that is accessible by the general amateur radio community. The TJ3Sat project was conceived from the idea that some things simply cannot be taught by a teacher standing in front of a class. Instead students must be engaged not just through textbooks and lectures, but by actively designing, building, and operating real-world projects. Over the past three TJHSST students have learned the intricacies of requirements development, subsystem design, space-qualified soldering techniques and many other elements unique to the aerospace field. Through the TJ3Sat program we will expose a new generation of scientists and engineers to the benefits and excitement of space missions at an age when they are making their first, crucial career decisions.
Presentation Slides
TJ3Sat – The First Satellite Developed and Operated by High School Students
In 2006 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) and Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital) announced a new initiative to have students from TJHSST design and build the first ever high school satellite. Leveraging the large body of prior work done in the CubeSat community, and under the mentorship of Orbital engineers, TJHSST students are in the advanced prototyping phase of their CubeSat dubbed TJ3Sat. The TJ3Sat payload includes a digital voice synthesizer that is accessible by the general amateur radio community. The TJ3Sat project was conceived from the idea that some things simply cannot be taught by a teacher standing in front of a class. Instead students must be engaged not just through textbooks and lectures, but by actively designing, building, and operating real-world projects. Over the past three TJHSST students have learned the intricacies of requirements development, subsystem design, space-qualified soldering techniques and many other elements unique to the aerospace field. Through the TJ3Sat program we will expose a new generation of scientists and engineers to the benefits and excitement of space missions at an age when they are making their first, crucial career decisions.
