Overview

The Student Space Programs Laboratory (SSPL) at the Pennsylvania State University allows undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to design, fabricate, and integrate space systems. The SSPL provides hands-on projects to apply classroom knowledge to real world, interdisciplinary settings. SSPL students experience working through a complete design cycle and must develop a systems engineering mind-set in addition to their component-level experience.

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There are many opportunities for new students to get involved. The lab is searching for students from first-year through graduate students. Previous experience is not required; we have small projects and training programs that will bring you up to speed faster than you may think.
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Showing user profile of selected author: - News & Events

Thursday, January 24. 2013

Meeting Times

For anyone interested in joining or that needs to know the meeting times, a list of each functional group meeting time and contact information is listed below.

Communications: Monday 5:30p-6:30p

Tim Hackett tmh5344@psu.edu

Ground Station: Monday 7:30p-8:30p

Kodie Altvater kja5135@psu.edu

Mechanical: Friday 4:00p-5:00p

Adam Johnson ajj5113@psu.edu

Power: Wednesday 7:00-8:00p

Alex Scott ajs6006@psu.edu

Science/Payload: Monday 2:00-3:00

Tim Brubaker trb5084@psu.edu

Guidance Navigation & Control: Monday 8:00p-9:00p

Sean McFarlane spm5276@psu.edu

Thermal: Tuesday 6:30p-7:30p

Andre Coleman Jr. avc5184@psu.edu

Command & Data Handling:

Hardware: Sunday 7:00p-8:00p

Software: Sunday 8:00p-9:00p

Craig Hammond cmh5701@psu.edu

Posted by
News & Events
at 13:15

Wednesday, September 5. 2012

Fall Kickoff Meeting!


On behalf of the Student Space Programs Laboratory, I'd like to give a warm welcome to all our new and prospective members of SSPL! 
The Student Space Programs Laboratory will be holding a kickoff meeting next Monday, September 10, at 8:15pm in 362 Willard. Experienced members of SSPL will be giving a short presentation on what it is we do, followed by a tour of our lab and pizza! You'll get to learn a bit about our satellite, OSIRIS, and what it takes to develop one. I hope to see you all there, and don't forget to tell your friends that might be interested!




Posted by
News & Events
at 12:30

Monday, January 16. 2012

SSPL Kickoff Meeting this Tuesday (Tomorrow) at 7pm in 161 Willard


Join the students of the Student Space Programs Laboratory (SSPL) this Tuesday, January 17th (Tomorrow!) at 7pm in 161 Willard for an informational meeting followed by a pizza social back in the lab (332 EE East).

The SSPL is a student lab working to teach students about systems engineering through hands on projects. SSPL is presently working on small satellites (CubeSats) and high altitude balloon missions for technology demonstration. Other past projects include sounding rockets and small satellites for the Air Force NanoSat competition. Students of all experience levels and of all majors, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science to name a few are encouraged to join.

Students gain hands on experience complementing their course work while bolstering their resume, helping to improve exposure and prospects from companies offering internships and full time jobs.

For more information, please attend the information session or contact Lab Director Professor Bilén (sbilen@psu.edu) or Programs Manager Allen Kummer (atk5025@psu.edu).http://sspl.psu.edu



Posted by
News & Events
at 15:35

Friday, December 2. 2011

Rocket Launcher Test


Steve and Tyler tested the rocket launcher leading up to tomorrow's launch for the First Year Seminar This IS Rocket Science. Look for more videos to be posted to YouTube soon!

http://www.youtube.com/user/PennStateSSPL





Posted by
News & Events
in Events at 23:28

Tuesday, October 25. 2011


Last Thursday, students from the Student Space Programs Lab, EE 472 Satellite Communications, EE 009 FYS: This is Rocket Science, and EE 497E Space Systems Engineering Seminar, toured the facilities at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Newtown, PA. While there, the students learned about the GPS III satellite work done at the facility, the process for building communications satellites and how Lockheed Martin's satellite communications systems benefit their customers. Students got to see the clean rooms and testing facilities where satellite components are built and verified and full scale satellite testing is performed.
We would like to thank our hosts at Lockheed Martin for the great tour!

Posted by
News & Events
at 15:20

Friday, January 14. 2011

HASP 2011 Proposal Accepted


SSPL's proposal for the OSIRIS Lite 2 (O2) payload on HASP 2011 has been accepted!

HASP provides the opportunity for student payloads to fly at the edge of space to support science and technology development missions. The payload this year is a continuation of SSPL's OSIRIS CubeSat development program where the complete spacecraft bus will be demonstrated in the flight form factor.



Posted by
News & Events
in OSIRIS CubeSat at 18:52

Thursday, January 13. 2011

Student Space Programs Lab Kickoff Meeting: January 19, 7:00 pm; 160 Willard.


Do you remember that childhood fascination with space? Do you want to fly your work in space? Do you have a general interest in how things work? Do you want to get internship like experience while still taking classes? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then come join the Student Space Programs Laboratory at the kickoff meeting January 19 at 7pm in 160 Willard, where you can get your hands on real flight hardware and software while building a CubeSat mission, High Altitude Balloon Payloads, Rockets and Satellite Communications Systems. This semester will see the flight of one Balloon Payload and the building and testing of another to fly in September. All engineering, science. education and other majors are invited to join to work on projects funded by NASA, NSF, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Aeorspace Corporation. While working, you can add the extra impact to your diploma of a special Certificate in Space Systems Engineering (http://www.engr.psu.edu/Departments/spacesys.aspx).

Independent study, honors option/thesis topics are available. We have many projects and positions available. For more information, please attend the information session or contact Lab Director Professor Bilén (sbilen@psu.edu) or Programs Manager Allen Kummer (atk5025@psu.edu). http://sspl.psu.edu













Posted by
News & Events
in Events at 10:41

Friday, October 29. 2010

OLite Thermal Testing


The thermal team concluded a ~24 hour thermal vacuum test of OLite this morning. For the test, OLite was exposed to temperatures as low as -20 degrees C while operating as is expected during the HASP Balloon flight. Preliminary data shows that temperatures inside OLite got as low as -10 degrees C on the COMM FPGA while staying around 10 degrees C on the RF power amplifier. 

Congratulations to the entire OLite team for successfully surviving the simulated balloon flight.


Posted by
News & Events
in OSIRIS CubeSat at 15:37

Monday, October 25. 2010

OSIRIS Lite 2 (O2) Mission Concept Review


The OLite 2 team had their first major design review yesterday when they presented their mission concept review to a review panel consisting of Dr. Sven Bilen (Associate Professor Electrical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering, PSU), Robert Capuro (Retiree, Honeywell Inc.), and Michael Paul (PSU Applied Research Laboratory). Many thanks to the review team for their questions and comments during the review. The team will be working to address these comments as they move forward designing through to the PDR, scheduled for the week before Thanksgiving.

Thank you reviewers and congratulations to the O2 Team.

The review material can be found here or by request to the O2 Project Manager Allen Kummer, atk5025@psu.edu


Posted by
News & Events
in OSIRIS CubeSat at 15:50

Sunday, October 10. 2010

Power Experiment (MPPT) Calibration


OLite spent the afternoon outside today to calibrate the Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT, Power Experiment). SSPL students Alex Hackett and Jim Cochrane worked with the payload recording solar flux as the payload itself tracked the peak power. This allows the power team to understand the differences between the operation of the MPPT at altitude vs on the ground as we access applying Indium Tin Oxide over the solar cells to increase the satellite return area.
Posted by
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at 21:00

Saturday, October 2. 2010

OLite Comm System Range Test


The Comm and Ground Station teams completed a rangetestyesterday, stretching about .8 miles along Curtin Road. They expect that the range was limited dueto obstructions like trees and cars along the line of sight. Further testing using attenuators is planned to simulate pass loss.
Posted by
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in OSIRIS CubeSat at 19:08

Wednesday, September 22. 2010

CDH Subsystem Progress


Since the start of the fall semester, the CDH team has been wrestling with repairing damage incurred on their subsystem during HASP integration in August. The team managed to get the upper hand today when they saw OLite's main flight computer program and boot into linux for the first time since Texas. Congratulations go out to the team as we look forward to the final board checkout and system integration next week.

Posted by
News & Events
at 22:49

Ground Station Listens In on the ISS


If there was any doubt before about having listened in on a satellite communication yesterday, Josh was at it again today and this time managed to transmit to, get acknowledgement from and listen in on a conversation between a school group and astronauts on the International Space Station. The Ground Station team plans to continue listening in on and transmitting to satellites to expand their knowledge of satellite communications while getting the dish on Deike operational.

Posted by
News & Events
at 11:00

Tuesday, September 21. 2010

OLite Comm System Update


While the ground station was being tested on the roof, the flight communications team, responsible for designing, building and testing the flight radio, was busy with their own test in the lab. The team was able to demonstrate today bench top communications from the flight radio to the mobile ground station paving the way for some field range testing and integration with the OLite system over the course of the next month.




Posted by
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in OSIRIS CubeSat at 17:27

Ground Station Update


Josh Miller demonstrated today the ground station's ability to receive voice information from a satellite. At approximately 3:20 today the Saudisat 1C relay satellite passed over State College and the ground station was able to listen in on a conversation between two amateur radio operators. This is the first step being taken towards the goal of a working satellite ground station capable of supporting the OSIRIS CubeSat. Satellite relay contacts like this will be used to test the ground station's tracking algorithms as well as radio functionality in the coming months. 




Posted by
News & Events
in OSIRIS CubeSat at 17:21
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