Project Listing

Explorer 1 [Prime]
	A cubesat class spacecraft re-flight of the 1957 Explorer 1 mission that mapped the Van Allen belts. Explorer 1 Prime is a 50th anniversary mission that will fly geiger tubes from the original mission. Project started October 2004.
SpaceBuoy

	A Nanosat project funded by the AFRL University Nanosat Program. The SpaceBuoy mission will measure several ionospheric plasma parameters essential to space weather forecasting from a nanosatellite platform using co-developed instruments, and will demonstrate that data can be made available to the forecasting community in 1.5 hours of being taken. Project started January 2007.
RPIR
	A group dedicated to the design, engineering and testing of an autonomous in-vitro space flight protosystem for determining the impact of microgravity on leukocyte recruitment.
SLIPP
	Secondary Launch Interface with Parasitic Payload: This project is a collaboration between MSU, Microsat Systems, ITN, and CU. The funding is coming from DARPA. The project involves a system that will allow a drone to detach itself and re-dock with the host satellite with minimal interference to that host.
Vacuum chamber
	An in-house vacuum chamber that will allow for testing of satellites and components, with the capabilities of thermal vacuum testing and an automated control system.
Ground station
	A student-run station for tracking satellites, run in the 2m and 70cm HAM radio bands.
MISSE 6
	An experiment to test the survivability of various tether materials and electronics in the space environment, including 12 samples of monofiliment fishing line and 6 tether samples from Tethers Unlimited. A switch senses failure of the samples and the data will show times of failure. A computer built from consumer off-the-shelf parts is running in continuous self-diagnostic mode and reporting errors once per-orbit. MISSE6 will be on orbit through 2009.

Previous Projects

MEROPE
	A 1-kg nanosat designed and built by MSU students. Modeled after the Explorer 1 mission to chart the Van Allen radiation belts. Destroyed in the Dnepr-1 launch in July, 2006.
Maia
	A Nanosat built at MSU under NASA-AFRL funding. Project began in February 2003 and provided the heritage for the new SpaceBuoy project.
MARS
	A group working on rocket propulsion and innovative support systems necessary for the launch and testing of reusable flight vehicles. The ultimate goal is a liquid-fuel rocket.
MOSES
	A sounding rocket investigation to study the sun in an EUV launched from White Sands, NM, in August 2005.
AUSTRALIS
	A cosmic ray experiment to assess the radiation environment near NASA's Deep Space Test Bed balloon-borne gondola. Launched in May, 2005.