Purdue Space Program – Satellites (PSP Sats) is a student-run program with the vision to cultivate a pipeline of workforce ready professionals for the space community. The team is focused on building and launching satellites in collaboration with corporate, academic, and government partners. PSP Sats is dedicated to providing an enriching student experience and connecting talented individuals to industry through hands-on work experience conceptualizing, designing, manufacturing, testing, and operating spaceflight hardware. Students gain technical experience using industry tools and practices to enhance their skills and intuition. Additionally, PSP Sats provides students with a variety of  professional development opportunities to connect them to a fulfilling career in the space sector. PSP Sats is proud to advertise an over 80% internship or research placement rate for its roughly 145 members during the summer 2024 season, despite the team being primarily freshman and sophomores.

PSP Sats is currently developing the Boiler Bus program, envisioning a series of student-friendly, low-cost, and reliable standardized satellite buses, with ground services, capable of hosting a wide variety of  payloads for commercial, academic and government partners. Adapting the satellite-as-a-service model seen in industry to a collegiate program, the team is able to provide low-cost, reliable payload support services at a high cadence. PSP Sats is currently developing their first platform: a 3U CubeSat capable of supporting a 2U payload bay. Following this development, the team will launch Mission 1-T: a 3U platform with a satellite-bus-testing suite located in the payload bay in order to flight certify the platform’s effectiveness. This payload will validate platform capabilities such as power storage and distribution, pointing accuracy and stability, lifetime, and more. This mission will certify that our payload specifications are both accurate and achievable, proving that our 3U platform is reliable and ready for market integration. 

The initial 3U platform is projected to cost $65,000-70,000, with an upper limit of $100,000. Initial development costs, prior to Mission 1-T, are estimated to be substantially higher, at around $225,000. This is due to the additional cost of an initial Flat Sat, Engineering Test Unit, ground station development, and miscellaneous developmental costs. PSP Sats is diligently working towards completing all reviews by the Summer of 2027, with the final handoff of the completed CubeSat scheduled for the Fall of 2027.