University of Chicago students creating satellite for NASA

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Some University of Chicago students are the brains behind an object that may get launched into space.

NASA has given its blessing the PULSE-A, a small communication satellite that will send messages back to earth using lasers instead of radio waves. The University of Chicago’s project was one of ten projects from universities to be selected for NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative.

PULSE-A is an example of a CubeSat, which are satellites that are extremely small. Some are as small as four inches.

Project manager Logan Hanssler says the satellite is the size of a paper towel roll small enough to be carried up to the International Space Station.

“They will bring it up to the International Space Station and someone on the space station will push the satellite out into space. And there's a tool called a dispenser that basically just ejects the satellite into orbit.”

The satellite has a projected launch date of summer 2026.

Their satellite “aims to make space-to-ground operations more difficult to intercept and jam, while increasing the speed of communications.”

“We are constantly sending information to space with our phones. Space has become so accessible. But there's something different about thinking how something you design and build is going to space,” Juan Ignacio Prieto, the head of the optical ground station that will receive PULSE-A’s communications, said in a released statement.

“We're shooting data through a laser and that means designing every part of the process and what goes in that laser somehow feels different than what goes in your phone.”

Hanssler says his team has plenty of work to do to make sure it's ready to fly.

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