Engineering Students Send Satellite to Outer Space With NASA Partnership — Part One

What subject would you study if you could design a research satellite to launch into outer space?

EagleSat-2 is the second undertaking in an ongoing student-led CubeSat program developed by the College of Engineering at Embry‑Riddle's Prescott Campus. The shoebox-sized cube satellite, known as a CubeSat, will carry a payload designed to test how radiation in space can affect various types of random-access memory — one of the most important parts of computers.

EagleSat-2 is destined to piggyback on a resupply trip to the International Space Station (ISS) provided by national security and space solutions company Voyager (formerly known as Voyager Space Holdings). Once in orbit about 250 miles above Earth, the satellite will begin its mission.

The EagleSat-2 project exemplifies the power of teamwork through its tireless seven-year development. Few academic teams can showcase such a long-term, collaborative partnership between deans, faculty members and up to 200 students — though the team stopped counting years ago — from five engineering programs: Aerospace, Mechanical, Computer, Electrical and Software.

As the project nears completion ahead of its expected late 2025 launch, we spoke with a handful of engineering students who played key roles in its development.

What Is a CubeSat?

The EagleSat program is financially supported by NASA’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship Project, and its launch is facilitated by NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. These resources offer universities an affordable way to conduct scientific research or test technologies in outer space. In the process, students and faculty gain hands-on flight hardware design, development and build experience.

CubeSat is short for cube satellite, an object defined by its standardized size: a combination of 10x10x10 centimeter (cm) cubes or units (U). Each cube is shaped like a square LEGO brick, meant to be inexpensive and accessible, making CubeSats popular for educational, research and commercial space missions.

As a 3U cube satellite, EagleSat-2's mission is not limited by its humble size — aiming to improve the engineering of space equipment for the entire industry.

A Mission With a Higher Purpose

EagleSat-2 was engineered to conduct a Memory Degradation Experiment (MDE), a topic provided by NASA, testing how different types of computer memory can withstand extreme conditions of space.

In outer space, radiation and temperature fluctuations can corrupt data or damage memory hardware. “We care about what happens to memory in space because it contains our critical operational software and scientific data,” said one contributor.

From Blueprint to Orbit

One of EagleSat-2’s earliest champions, Dr. Ahmed Sulyman, provided guidance from conception to completion. As professor and interim chair of the Department of Computer, Electrical and Software Engineering (CESE), his approach shaped the project's progress. He was also vital in equipping CESE students with the foundational skills needed for them to lead the project initially.

A satellite, even a small one, is a highly sophisticated machine. It takes technical expertise, advanced knowledge and great care to construct.

At the core of EagleSat-2 is its onboard computer (OBC) — the satellite’s brain.

Built by a rotating team of embedded and software engineers, the OBC connects all other systems and responds to input from the satellite’s sensors and components. Former Computer Engineering student Joshua Parmenter (’22) led the OBC team for three years, describing the fundamental role of his team, “We know how to talk to the computer at the lowest level, sometimes literally the 1s and 0s in order to make the hardware it interacts with do very specific things."

The satellite also needed a reliable link to Earth.

Software Engineering graduate Hayden Roszel (’23) redesigned the ground station (GS), creating compact antennas with stronger signals and then connecting it to the computers in EagleSat Lab. The GS will track EagleSat-2 in orbit, gathering experiment data and giving commands. Roszel also helped build the initial cleanroom — a controlled environment that keeps dust and contaminants off sensitive project components during assembly.

Powering the entire satellite is the electrical power system (EPS), which collects energy from solar panels and distributes it to each subsystem.

Gary Wiens (’26), an Electrical Engineering student, improved the satellite’s charging design by crafting custom USB connectors — a conduit through which data and energy flow.

The Project Comes Together

Coordinating a high-tech, multi-year effort like EagleSat-2 requires vision and leadership.

Former Computer Engineering student Calvin Henggeler (’24) served as project manager and payload development lead, overseeing the hardware and software design of the payload system — the part of the satellite that runs the experiment. That included engineering the printed circuit board (PCB), the backbone of the electronics, which connects complex components in a compact, durable form.

Computer Engineering student Nikhil Dave (’25) integrated this payload with the rest of the satellite and currently leads programming. He wrote the code that allows the payload’s dedicated computer to talk to the OBC. Dave also led the final assembly — a massive undertaking that brought years of work together.

As the mission neared its final stages, Logan Ruddick (’24), an Aerospace Engineering graduate, stepped up to check and fix the embedded software. "While conceptually simple,” he said, “this is in practice one of the most difficult elements of satellite development, as it scales exponentially with the complexity of the problem." Ruddick also improved documentation, helping ensure the next generation of students can pick up where this team left off.

The current project manager is Bruce Noble (‘26), an Aerospace Engineering student who began as structures lead and ground station manager. Now, as project manager, he keeps the entire system aligned. “I have to take a systems engineering perspective,” he said, “focusing on how the satellite meets our requirements and ensuring all the subsystems work together as intended.”

It’s All About Memory

The real star of the mission is the memory — specifically, how it behaves in space.

MDE tests four types of computer memory in space. The test results could help aerospace engineers select more reliable, cost-effective hardware for future missions.

“If our findings show a certain type of memory was unaffected by space without any protection,” said Dave. “I would hope that space systems would transition to using the specific memory type we found to be secure.”

Henggeler said the team hopes to present its findings at conferences like Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) or SmallSat, while Dave looks forward to visualizing the test data: “It would be cool to at least publish graphical summaries of the data we retrieve.”

The Story Continues

The EagleSat-2 journey doesn’t end here. In the second half of this story, follow the team through memorable challenges, launch preparations and the moments that made it all worthwhile.