The Rice chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) has received the Technical Project of the Year award from the national organization for its OwlSat CubeSat.
The award was received during the SEDS annual convention, SpaceVision 2020, held virtually Nov. 7-8. The club developed OwlSat, one of 18 small research satellites, known as CubeSats, selected by NASA to serve as payloads in launches scheduled for the next three years. OwlSat is tentatively slated for liftoff in January 2022.
The satellite will contain sensors to monitor the extreme ultraviolet radiation emitted by the sun. Such emissions become more intense during periods of solar flaring, and can alter the path of satellites in low-Earth orbit.
SEDS Rice will be the hosting chapter for SpaceVision 2021, to be held next fall at Space Center Houston, the visitor’s center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.