Session
Pre-Conference Poster Session II
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
The Balloon Launch Assessment Directive for Engineers (BLADE) acts as a hybrid ideas lab and skills development program for undergraduates at Cal Poly Pomona. This program, targeted primarily at incoming first year and transfer students, takes the participants from zero knowledge of the engineering design process and walks them through a simplified yet rigorous pathway. This pathway is based on established Systems Engineering processes and is deployed by having students design a mock Cube Satellite with a unique scientific payload for flight in a high-altitude balloon. This program not only brings together a hands-on approach to merging good engineering processes with conducting new and innovative scientific research, but also illustrates the value of the systems engineering process to mission success for engineering students that would otherwise not be exposed to its principles until the graduate level.
By constraining student designs to the 1U CubeSat form factor, it is intended that experiences gained by students taking part in this program may be directly applied to designs for fully-fledged orbital CubeSat missions the university is undertaking. This process is intended to allow for a foundational pathway into space mission development at the undergraduate level at significantly lower programmatic and technical costs.
BLADE: The Balloon Launch Assessment Directive for Engineers and the Use of the CubeSat Form Factor for an Introductory Systems Engineering Education
Utah State University, Logan, UT
The Balloon Launch Assessment Directive for Engineers (BLADE) acts as a hybrid ideas lab and skills development program for undergraduates at Cal Poly Pomona. This program, targeted primarily at incoming first year and transfer students, takes the participants from zero knowledge of the engineering design process and walks them through a simplified yet rigorous pathway. This pathway is based on established Systems Engineering processes and is deployed by having students design a mock Cube Satellite with a unique scientific payload for flight in a high-altitude balloon. This program not only brings together a hands-on approach to merging good engineering processes with conducting new and innovative scientific research, but also illustrates the value of the systems engineering process to mission success for engineering students that would otherwise not be exposed to its principles until the graduate level.
By constraining student designs to the 1U CubeSat form factor, it is intended that experiences gained by students taking part in this program may be directly applied to designs for fully-fledged orbital CubeSat missions the university is undertaking. This process is intended to allow for a foundational pathway into space mission development at the undergraduate level at significantly lower programmatic and technical costs.
