PA Space Grant Consortium supports two programs at PSU Abington: Abington College Undergraduate Research Activities (ACURA) and Space Science and Astronomy research (formerly NRAO).
ACURA offers undergraduate students the opportunity to work one-on-one with research faculty at Abington College on an array of projects in chemistry, biochemistry, physics, engineering, computer science, and biology that include high-performance computer network evaluation, biomechanics, organic chemistry synthesis, aging processes affecting the liver, and LIDAR sensing.
The Radio Astronomy project introduces undergraduate students to research in the area of astronomy using small radio telescopes at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. Students also analyze pulsars with the more sophisticated 20-meter telescope through robotic control, eliminating the need for travel to the observatory.
The Space Science Project involves the design, fabrication and testing of a CubeSat prototype. CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite (with a standardized dimension of 10 cm à 10 cm à 10 cm), which has shown a promise in reducing the cost of doing space science especially in Earth orbit. The aim is to expand the ongoing CubeSat prototype (i.e., not yet space rated) development program at PSU Abington. Three specific objectives being proposed are: (1) develop a method to fabricate CubeSat at a low cost by using structure being machined in house and by banking on consumer-grade mechatronics hardware, (2) develop a method to retrieve science data using a Ãâglobal networkÃâ of amateur radio users and without using specialized (and expensive) ground stations, and (3) develop a multidisciplinary approach to designing and testing CubeSat by making use of equipment already available in labs at PSU Abington. The development and operation of our proof-of-concept CubeSat would be two-orders of magnitude cheaper than a typical CubeSats flown today.