Date: October 2025
Amount: $13,176

Utah Tech University’s CubeSat program gives students hands-on experience in satellite design, amateur radio communication, and space engineering. The team built a UHF ground station last year for its Harbinger CubeSat and is now developing Solace, a new mission that uses thermal IR imaging to support Utah’s water resource management.

This project will add an S-band ground station, plus a small portable demo system. Solace generates far more data than UHF can handle, so S-band is required for practical downlink. The fixed station will be integrated into SatNOGS for open public access, and the portable setup will be used in classrooms and community events to demonstrate real satellite communication.