Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Responding to a national need for next-generation, low-cost and rapidly deployable satellites, Mississippi State is beginning a major research and education effort in small satellite technology.
The university recently signed a cooperative agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and in collaboration with the British-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. Scientists will be examining applications ranging from space exploration to national defense, telecommunications and disaster response.
The research will focus on an advanced technology program that "could have the impact in space that Henry Ford's car had here on earth," said principal investigator Chuck Hill, deputy director of MSU's GeoResources Institute.
Through long-term collaborative research with NASA and other federal agencies, the Starkville-based center has developed an international niche in the use of satellite technology for agricultural, natural resource and oceanographic applications.
The new partnership with SSTL, a highly successful company spun off from a University of Surrey* research program, will be the first university-based small satellite program focusing on the "soup-to-nuts" process beginning with design and ending with space operations, Hill said.
The initial effort, also involving NASA's Stennis Space Center in Hancock County and faculty members from MSU's Bagley College of Engineering, is dubbed "Magnolia" and is focused on a design study for lunar communication and navigation satellites.
Using smaller satellites, commercial components and advanced manufacturing techniques, the Magnolia team expects to accelerate design-to-delivery from the five or more years typical today down to one-three years, said GRI director David Shaw. Small satellites, some weighing as little as 500 pounds, offer "an order of magnitudeless cost and significantly less development time," he added.
Unlike other universities that have developed components of a small-satellite program, the MSU-SSTL partnership is commercially focused. According to Magnolia team leaders, it is aimed at streamlining the entire low-cost satellite production process and developing a globally competitive manufacturing capability.
"We're not just going to build miniaturized systems," Hill explained. "We're focusing on a comprehensive approach, from satellite design and mission planning to communication systems to manufacturing."
In conjunction with the new effort, Mississippi State has begun offering a cross-disciplinary graduate degree concentration in small satellite engineering.
The eight doctoral students currently enrolled are taking courses in aerospace engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and industrial and systems engineering.
Aerospace engineering department head Tony Vizzini, holder of the college's Bill and Carolyn Cobb Chair in Aerospace Engineering, coordinates the academic program.
"We believe this comprehensive approach has a huge potential in meeting a national need and in establishing Mississippi as a leader in small spacecraft technology," said Kirk Schulz, MSU vice president for research and economic development.
"Our long-term goal is to grow our research and education programs in these areas and to provide additional economic development opportunities for commercial spin-offs in Mississippi," he continued.
"We believe MSU and Mississippi will be key players in the future of small satellites used by NASA and other federal agencies."
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, telephone Hill at 662-325-9576 or Shaw at 662-325-9575.
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*The University of Surrey is located in Guildford, England.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.