Coastal Carolina University receives $50K grant to help send small satellite to space
CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) - Coastal Carolina University recently received funding to help send a satellite made in Conway into orbit.
A $50,000 grant was awarded to the school by the University Nanosatellite Program, and is the first for its small satellite mission known as ChantSat-1.
“We really are breaking new ground,” said CCU professor Logan Woodle. “This grant is this acknowledgement that we’re doing really novel work and exciting work at the scale of an institution with the funding we have.“
The grant is set to help pay for three students - Haiden Glazer, Hope Morrow and Abby Turka - to travel and gain expertise.
“What we’re going to be doing is learning the design process...the building process of the satellite or different aeronautical equipment and vehicles. And just how they do things, how they do things in a professional setting and really getting that experience and look at what it will look like when we start doing it,” said Glazer.
ChantSat-1 will be developed on campus and will orbit Earth at a low altitude, passing over parts of the planet each day.
“While we’re up there, we’re hoping to focus our primary payload into multi-spectral cameras. So basically it’ll be looking back down on Earth - measuring things like algo plumes, water salinity and sea surface temperature,” said Morrow.
“We’re excited. Especially for marine science,” said Turka. “The reason I applied is that, once it’s in space, it’ll be able to be used by students at Coastal to do marine research and I thought that was super awesome.”
The group will first head to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida before working with NASA and the U.S. Air Force at New Mexico State University and then a conference in Utah.
The trio of students also shared their excitement at possibly being the first school in the state to have a satellite in orbit.
“Being this inaugural program and getting to launch this satellite and being the first in South Carolina in space is a great opportunity for us,” added Morrow.
Morrow said the program hopes to launch Chant-Sat1 in 2027.
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