New Mexico Space Grant Student Launch Project 2008

Payloads

• University program: undergraduate engineering students designed, built, and tested payloads as part of a senior capstone design course.

• NMSU:  Payload will collect data in terms of altitude, acceleration, temperature, cosmic radiation and magnetic field in order to understand how the flight components operate in sub-orbital space. Name of payload is OSCER-Sat. Faculty advisor is Dr. Steve Horan. Technical Advisor is Lawrence Alvarez.
• UNM:  Payload will collect data in order to demonstrate the module’s capability to support space-oriented missions by future student designers.  Sensors include pressure, temperature, light, acceleration, and gyroscopic. Name of the payload is the UNM SmartCan. Faculty advisor is Dr. Olga Lavrova. Technical Advisor is Lawrence Alvarez.
• Community Colleges:  undergraduate students in technical programs built and tested payloads as part of an undergraduate course.  Payloads include pressure sensor, accelerometers, temperature sensor, and Geiger counter. Faculty advisors include: Bill Sutton, ITT Technical Institute; Marco Garay, DACC; and Nader Vadiee, SIPI. Technical Advisor is Lawrence Alvarez.
• High Schools:  Students are using payloads which collect data on the flight of the rocket.  Pressure sensors will collect barometric measures and accelerometers will indicate how high and how fast the rocket flew. After launch, students will analyze their data and present their results. Teachers include: Jean Davis, Cloudcroft; Kelley Weiler, Hatch; Stacy Coulter, T or C; Greg Marez, Las Cruces; and, Alonzo Wright, Mayfield (Las Cruces).
  

New Mexico Space Grant would like to give a very special “Thank You!” to Lawrence Alvarez for his Technical and motivational support throughout this project. Thanks, Larry!

For more information, contact Aaron Perez at aaperez@nmsu.edu or (575) 646-6414.