With support from Blue Origin, the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture shops, and the Coug Parents program, the students will be testing their propulsion system that they developed in a vacuum chamber at NASA.
Since 2017, the club has been working to develop small satellites that can be launched to space as part of NASA’s CubeSat Initiative.
Similar to the difference between a speed boat and a tug boat, the electric propulsion system does not have as much force but is much more efficient than traditional fuel-powered propulsion, said AJ Aukusitino, a sophomore in mechanical engineering and team lead on the project.
When he was given the chance to attend a conference on space technology, he met Dan Lev, a research engineer at Georgia Tech, who offered to mentor the students on development of the electric propulsion system.