The GSat-1 (Geneva-Satellite Iteration 1) Program is an outreach program designed for high school and middle school students to have hands on experience with STEM, NASA research, and working with College Students in a college setting.
26 Geneva Middle School Students (6th-8th grade), from Geneva, NY, were selected, though an application process, to be apart of the team. The students assembled, tested, and integrated four Geiger Counter Radiation Sensor Kits onto the HWS RockSat-C teams research payload, which will be sent to space on Thursday, June 22nd 2017.
The Geneva Middle School Students worked closely with RockSat-C Outreach lead Cody Rivera every Tuesday and Thursday, for nine weeks. Every Tuesday, Cody would go to the middle school and work with the students, while on Thursday’s, the students would come to the HWS Colleges campus to work in the Physics Lab in Eaton Hall.
The students first learned how to solder. Than thee students practiced soldering two practice kits, one siren and one voice changer. After, when they become comfortable with soldering, they soldered a Radiation Sensor. Throughout the nine week program, the students also went on a full college tour of HWS, learned about 3D Printing, and were able to test their Radiation Sensor by flying it on a Drone.
GSat-1 stands for Geneva-Satellite Iteration 1. The reason we chose this as the programs name is because our team wanted to represent the programs location, while mimicking the Satellite portion of the RockSat-C name. Than we included the number one because our team wanted to emphasize that there will be other opportunities in the following years. If HWS competes in the program next year, the year after, and the year after that, than their will be a Geneva-Satellite Iteration 2 program, than Geneva-Satellite Iteration 3, and so on.
RockSat-C 2017 