MakerSat: A CubeSat Designed for In-Space Assembly

Two teams of Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) undergraduate engineering students have been nationally selected to design and fly two CubeSat research missions in orbit around the Earth. MakerSat is a technology proof-of-concept mission that will demonstrate microgravity additive manufacturing, assembly, and deployment of a CubeSat, from the International Space Station (ISS) in collaboration with Made In Space, Inc. The 1U satellite will measure the mass loss of several additively-manufactured polymers as they experience monoatomic oxygen radicals, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, ionizing radiation, and outgassing. MakerSat is also a multi-project/school satellite supporting up to four different science team experiments. A Caldwell High School engineering team is designing an experiment to fly together with NNU’s