Professor Papadopoulos (in black, front role, 2nd from left) with SJSU/NASA TechEdSat research team.

The Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering provides opportunities for students to dream big – even to outer space. San Jose State University announced that aerospace engineering faculty and students were sponsored by NASA to design, integrate and fly the showcase project, “Technology Educational Satellite," dubbed TechEdSat. The satellite weighing less than two pounds, housed in a 10 cm cube, was recently launched with JAXA from Japan to the International Space Station.

TechEdSat is the first U.S. university-built cubesat deployed directly from the International Space Station and will orbit Earth for four weeks this fall – a first-time mission of its kind for NASA. SJSU's TechEdSat will set the standard and requirements for ISS deployment in addition to technology demonstration of plug-and-play cube-sat system architecture, and direct in-space communication with the IRIDIUM constellation.

In a July 18 news release from NASA-Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CoE Professor Periklis Papadopoulos, co-principle investigator of TechEdSat, said, “The TechEdSat project is a trailblazing mission that showcases how a collaboration among NASA, academia and industry can set the standard for future cubesats.

“This has been a life-changing experience for the students – they were faced with real challenges they had to address through hard work and innovation on a tight deliverable timeline. NASA provided the facilities, knowhow, framework, and mentorship every step of the way and guided the students’ focus to ensure mission success,” Papadopoulos said.

SJSU features one of these students, alumna, ’12, Ali Guarneros Luna, now a systems engineer at NASA, in its Spartans at Work continuing news series.