The Western Aerospace Launch Initiative (WALI)

WMU’s spacecraft design team, the Western Aerospace Launch Initiative (WALI), presented the preliminary design of its first satellite to the Air Force Research Laboratory at the 2017 Small Satellite Conference at Utah State University. The team is designing a 15 kg satellite, known as a CubeSat, to demonstrate on-orbit assessment of electric propulsion system health. The WMU Plasma Spectroscopy CubeSat is currently preparing for flight selection review in anticipation of a launch in 2019-20.

 

The WALI team, which includes students from aerospace, mechanical, and other engineering majors at WMU, is performing all aspects of the satellite design, fabrication, and testing process. Students are working as subsystem teams to develop the CubeSat structure, power system, attitude determination and control system, communication system, command and data handling system, and thermal control system. The WALI team is led by MAE faculty members Dr. Jennifer Hudson and Dr. Kristina Lemmer. 

 

WMU was selected in 2016 as one of 10 universities nationwide in the Air Force Research Laboratory’s University Nanosatellite Program. Through this program, WALI members have had several opportunities to present their work to aerospace industry leaders, including at the Small Satellite Conference and an upcoming flight selection review in Albuquerque, N.M., in January 2018. For more information about the CubeSat project, please visit https://wmich.edu/engineer/wali.