Lancaster Area High Schoolers Build Satellite Mockup with Caltech Scholar's Help

PASADENA, Calif. — Last fall, 32 Littlerock High School students weren't thinking about their new textbooks and teachers, instead they were focused on the satellite they had to finish building before June.

With the help of California Institute of Technology postdoctoral scholar Ravinder Bhatia, the students designed and built a satellite mockup that, if deployed, would observe stratospheric ozone depletion in the northern hemisphere over a three-year period.

The students, who recently completed the satellite, will give a presentation to Caltech faculty members and researchers, Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers, and a TRW engineer in Beckman Institute Auditorium, on the Caltech campus, from 10 a.m. to noon on May 24. They will also present their mission design and bring the satellite mockup for inspection.

Many of the students, who hail from classes in astronomy and chemistry taught by Lee Syer, are ethnic minorities and most come from economically disadvantaged homes. They are mostly juniors and seniors, with a few sophomores mixed in.

Bhatia, a postdoctoral scholar in observational cosmology, has advised the students on the technical and managerial aspects of the project, which has been built at Littlerock High, east of Lancaster, and in the Caltech physics machine shop.

Bhatia has been to the school about once a month, sometimes accompanied by another postdoctoral scholar, Brian Keating, and the physics machine shop supervisor, Ricardo Paniagua, since October 2000. Bhatia also has arranged tours of JPL and the Owens Valley Radio Observatory for the students.

His goal was to give the students real-world problems and encourage them to discover solutions on their own, as opposed to lecturing to them. "I also wanted to show them some of the opportunities out there that they could pursue, and I wanted to encourage them to go to college."

He said it was difficult for the students to understand that he was a resource for the project but not the answerman. "It is the first time that they have been in that kind of position," he said. They also learned the importance of communication and teamwork. "Learning by participating and experiencing has been much more exciting, valuable, and productive for them."

The students gained an understanding of the complexities of satellite telemetry, payload, and launch, as well as thermal, mechanical, and electrical design. They now have substantial experience in making presentations, graphic design, editing, and time management that they didn't have before starting the project. "They've had to do so much work on this on top of all their other studies. It has definitely inspired a lot of them to pursue their careers, whether it is in science or the arts. The main thing for me has been to see them grow in confidence and see what they really can create if given the opportunity and a little encouragement," he said.