Capabilities

Flight Hardware Laboratory

Located in the basement of Armstrong Hall of Engineering, ARMS B191 will provide a space for assembling flight hardware, including a 20'X12' clean room for final spacecraft assembly. While not yet operational, the facility is predicted to come on-line in 2018.

Hardware Development Laboratory

Located on the third floor of Armstrong Hall of Engineering, ARMS 3089 consists of grounded work-benches that provide an ideal place for soldering and testing electronic components. The lab also contains a space for group meetings, and a desktop computer equipped with the tools needed to compute trajectories, and evaluate spacecraft thermal and structural loads.

High Vacuum Facility

The High Vacuum Facility, located in the Aerospace Sciences Laboratory, provides access to three vacuum chambers, a low vacuum glove box, a micronewton torsional balance, and supporting pumps, gasses, and sensors required to operate them. More information on the High Vacuum Facility can be found here. 

Mission Operations Center

The Mission Operations Center provides a high-visibility space on the third floor of Armstrong next to the atrium. The center, shared with the Aerospace Systems group, consists of mission consoles and a wall-sized mission operations display. The center will allow faculty and students to view spacecraft telemetry in real time and provide necessary commands and updates to the spacecraft.

Tracking Station and Ground Data System

The tracking station, located at the Purdue Technology Center, consists of roof mounted S-band, and quad pole Yagi antennas that will allow direct communications between the operational satellites, and the Mission Operations Center.