With a National Science Foundation grant secured by Auburn University faculty, undergraduate students at Auburn will design, build and test two CubeSat satellites that will launch into space in 2018.

CubeSats are small satellites that come in multiples of 4-inch cubes. The grant marks the first time the National Science Foundation has awarded a grant for the construction, space launch, and operation of two, three-unit, CubeSats – a project that provides invaluable workforce development experience to Auburn's undergraduate students.

"To receive this kind of funding from NSF is a real feather in our cap," said J-M Wersinger, professor emeritus in the Department of Physics and Auburn University Student Space Program director. "The Auburn University Student Space Program is now recognized as offering one of the most prestigious CubeSat programs in the nation."

Wersinger, along with Mike Fogle, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, will submit a proposal to NASA to obtain a rocket launch that will carry the CubeSats into low Earth orbit for a mission that will last approximately 18 months. The two satellites will undergo many tests and reviews before launch, which will take place in about three years.

"CubeSats are great for research because they are inexpensive to build, you can fly a lot of them at the same time and receive more information and you can look at data in almost real time," Fogle said.

The student and faculty researchers will ultimately study the structure of powerful gamma-ray flashes associated with thunderstorms in the tropical regions of Earth. Auburn launched its first, single-unit CubeSat, AubieSat-1, into space in October 2011. The two, three-unit CubeSats for the NSF-funded mission are named TRYAD 1 and TRYAD 2. "TRYAD" stands for Terrestrial RaYs Analysis and Detection.

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Mike Forster received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1974, majoring in geography and minoring in geology. At that time, the Department of Geography was within the College of Business. Upon graduation, he received his commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and completed a tour of duty as a missile launch officer in the minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

He returned to Alabama and spent the next 25 years at the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs - Energy Division and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management - Land Division.

After retiring from the state, he went on to work in Greenville, Ala., at John F. Daughtry Engineering Inc., - DaFor Heavy Timber Fabricators.

From 1992 to 2003, Forster was the state recycling coordinator for Alabama, the role he is most proud of in his career.

“I worked primarily with city and county governments throughout Alabama providing them with federal grant funds to start or expand their local solid waste recycling programs and to assist them in finding markets and haulers for the recyclables like cardboard, office paper, glass, metals, plastics and yard waste,” said Forster. “Grant funds could be used to purchase collection containers, balers, crushers, shredders, compartmentalized trailers and curbside bins. In the early 1990s, the EPA changed and strengthened the solid waste landfill regulations causing most Alabama communities to close their local landfills and start hauling their garbage long distances to a regional landfill and pay tipping fees. It was during this time community leaders whose local landfill had closed would contact my office about starting or expanding their local recycling program.”

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