The efforts of students at Grace Brethren School to launch their own satellite into space was detailed yesterday in the Ventura County Star. The school, located in Simi Valley, Calif., is a ministry of Grace Church there (Jordan Bakker, pastor). A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article.
Grace Brethren students to send small satellite into space
Students of Grace Brethren School will work this year to design and build a small satellite that will eventually be launched into space.
The students will get some help from Savage Machining as they endeavor to build a CubeSat in partnership with General Dynamics Corp. A CubeSat is a small satellite, about 4 inches cubed. Grace Brethren is also building a ground station on the junior/senior high campus that will track the satellite as it passes above.
The students building it will either be enrolled in a new spacecraft engineering class or in the after-school club that meets monthly. In the class, students will learn various engineering disciplines, including mechanical, electrical and orbital mechanics.
They’ll also be able to track, monitor and record the data that is sent back to Earth. The students — mostly juniors and seniors in high school — will also be able to interact with professional engineers and share data with other educational institutions.
“Around this time next year, we will hopefully be launching our own satellite into space,” said John Hynes, principal of Grace Brethren. “There are very few schools in the country who do it.”
Click here to read the complete article.