{"id":31065,"date":"2019-07-15T13:07:50","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T17:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=31065"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:11:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:11:58","slug":"mann-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=31065","title":{"rendered":"Could we make a Carolina Blue spacecraft?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associate professor Andrew Mann is building small satellites in campus makerspaces to discover young planets that could one day sustain life.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"UNC
UNC student Patrick Gorman and UNC assistant professor, Andrew Mann, use 3D printers in the Murray Hall Makerspace to create models of components for small satellites. (Photo by Jon Gardiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Andrew Mann interviewed for his job as an astronomy professor at UNC-Chapel Hill a year ago, he told the hiring committee he wanted to buy a satellite to send on space missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, no,\u201d they told him. \u201cDon\u2019t buy one. Build<\/em> one.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an intriguing idea. A satellite for a large-scale mission can easily cost $200 million to buy and launch. Instead, the department promised a team of University-based physicists, astronomers and engineers who could support Mann in building his own miniature satellites on campus, all for less than $10,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were really excited about the whole thing, and that kept me interested,\u201d said Mann, an assistant professor in the College of Arts & Sciences\u2019 physics and astronomy department<\/a>. \u201cBut I\u2019ve never built things made for space before, and I was sort of like, \u2018What do I need? What do I do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mann\u2019s colleagues jumped in to help, and rising senior Patrick Gorman volunteered his engineering prowess to create a prototype of a small satellite called a CubeSat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been using the 3D printers in the makerspaces<\/a> to pull out prototypes of what we want to build,\u201d said Gorman, a biomedical engineering and astronomy student who leads a campus organization called UNC Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. \u201cIt\u2019s been an awesome on-campus resource for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Closeup
Closeup of a CubeSat being built in the makerspace. (photo by Jon Gardiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CubeSats, which Gorman calls \u201cthe next big space thing,\u201d are hardly bigger than a Rubik\u2019s cube at their smallest and weigh less than three pounds, making them relatively inexpensive to produce. Although they aren\u2019t as advanced as other, pricier research spacecraft, Mann said they have the potential to be nearly as good.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re basically amateur-sized telescopes in space,\u201d he said, adding that CubeSats can measure the size of nearby planets and collect other important data by sensing light patterns. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to build Hubble \u2014 that costs millions \u2014 but we can do something small, and it can do lots of things that Hubble can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mann believes the CubeSats will help him discover young planets that have the potential to become habitable. He calls them \u201cproto-Earths\u201d \u2014 planets that are about the right size and have the characteristics to potentially sustain life one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly what the conditions for life are, but let\u2019s just assume it has to be a clone of earth,\u201d Mann said. \u201cYou can think about it as a giant checklist. It needs an atmosphere, and we know what kind of atmosphere was required to build early forms of life on earth. Then we look at whether it\u2019s in the right orbit to have water. If it\u2019s too close to the star, water will be evaporated. If it\u2019s too far, water will be ice. And you keep working through the list.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Carolina CubeSats will help Mann answer a few of his most pressing questions: what conditions give rise to Earth-like planets, how many of them exist today, and how many might become habitable one day? The answers will give scientists an unprecedented glimpse into the origins and evolution of planets, as well as the precursors to extraterrestrial life.<\/p>\n

So far, researchers have identified three young, Earth-sized planets, but Mann hopes to use his satellites to discover as many as 30 over the next several years. For now, the team is working hard to make their CubeSats \u201cspace-worthy,\u201d which Gorman said means equipping them with the same level of durability required of surgical implants like titanium femurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very involved process, so it gives me a lot of experience in electronics, design, building, and radio,\u201d said Gorman, who is also developing the computing system that will communicate with the CubeSats in space. \u201cDr. Mann and I are both super enthusiastic about all that we\u2019re trying to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mann, who spent his youth hanging out with the high school astronomy club and scraping together enough money to buy the school a telescope, is just as excited to share his bold vision with Carolina students as he is to send the satellites into orbit. He plans to launch his first CubeSat within the next two to three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we launch it, it\u2019s going to be a big deal,\u201d he said. \u201cPart of my dream is having a great group of students at a launch pad, watching it go up. That\u2019s part of the vision. That would be really, really great.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Emilie Poplett, University Communications<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associate professor Andrew Mann is building small satellites in campus makerspaces to discover young planets that could one day sustain 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