The Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium awarded undergraduate fellowships in the Spring of 2009 to students at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and Hilo.

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa:

• Jason Axelson, a senior in Electrical Engineering will work with mentor Dr. Wayne Shiroma on hardware and software issues for small satellites on a project titled "Design of a CubeSat Payload Interface." Jason's goal is to create a modular interface to support CubeSat payloads in an effort to systematize development efforts and meet budget constraints.
• Amy Blas, a senior in Electrical Engineering, is continuing her efforts with the Kumu A‘o CubeSat team as project manager and co-lead for the telecommunication subsystem. Working with mentors Lloyd French and Byron Wolfe, of the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Amy and undergraduate teammates are working to complete a low-Earth-orbiting CubeSat satellite mission, from design to construction, launch, and operations.
• Jeremy Chan, a senior in Electrical Engineering, is the systems engineer and co-lead of the Kumu A‘o CubeSat team, responsibilities he began last semester. He is also overseeing the official documentation for the entire project. Working with mentors Lloyd French and Byron Wolfe, of the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Jeremy and undergraduate teammates are working to develop, test, launch, and operate a CubeSat mission.
• Jeff Fines, a senior in Electrical Engineering, will work on developing a telecom standard for CubeSat small satellites, helping to set a protocal for sending and receiving telemetry data. Jeff will be working on his project titled, "Design and Realization of a Standard for Telemetry Data Packeting" with mentor Jason Akagi, Avionics Engineering Lead for the Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory.
• Jeffrey Guzman, a senior in Mechanical Engineering, will continue working with mentor Dr. Weilin Qu of the Department of Mechanical Engineering on experiments to improve spacecraft thermal control. In his study titled, "Two-phase Micro-Channel Heat Sink Cooling Loop" Jeffrey is concentrating-+ on system assembly and determining the effects of gravity on the thermal performance of the cooling loop.
• Joshua Irvine, a senior in Biological Engineering, will pursue his research interests in bioenvironmental and agricultural engineering with a project that addresses new technologies that enable long-duration human space exploration. Joshua's project titled, "Biological Treatment and Reuse of Human Wastewater in Space" will be conducted with mentor Dr. P. Y. Yang of the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering.
• Reece Iwami, a senior in Electrical Engineering who has worked on U.H. CubeSat projects since his freshman year, including as a project leader, will take a new research direction into antennas. Reece's project is titled "Determination of the Effects and Applications of Multiple Interrogators on Retrodirective Arrays." Serving as mentor is Dr. Wayne Shiroma of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
• Kaveh Khosroshahi, a senior in Mechanical Engineering, is putting his skills to work for space technology and applications in a project titled, "Mechanical Performance and Alignment of Carbon Nanotubes." Kaveh is continuing his study of carbon nano-composite materials grown on unidirectional carbon fiber tapes. Serving as mentor is Dr. Mehrdad Ghasemi Nejhad of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
• Christina King, a junior in Art, will work with mentor Dr. Norbert Schorghofer of the Institute for Astronomy to research the characteristics and timing of the formation of dark streaks on slopes on the Martian surface. In her project titled, "Seasonality of Slope Streak Formation," Christina will learn processing and analysis techniques of geological remote sensing data.
• Erin Miller, a senior in Geology and Geophysics, will continue working with mentor Dr. Cecily Wolfe of the Department of Geology and Geophysics to study seismic data of Hawaiian volcanoes to help explain geologic behavior on other planetary bodies, detachment faulting in particular. Erin's project is titled "Magmatism and Faulting at Kilauea Volcano: An Analog to Tharsis Volcanoes on Mars."
• Whitney Reyes, a junior in Botany, will continue pursuing her interests in documenting distribution and health of land cover in Hawai‘i in a project titled, "Mapping and Analysis of Vegetation Abundance, Diversity, and Health in a Hawaiian Locale Using Hyperspectral Remote Sensing." Whitney is conducting field work to support her remote sensing mapping and analysis. Dr. Barbara Bruno of the Center for Microbial Oceanography and Harold Garbeil of the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology are serving as mentors.
• Isaac Rodrigues, a senior in Electrical Engineering, will continue working for the Kumu A‘o CubeSat team as lead engineer of the telecommunication subsystem. Working with mentors Lloyd French and Byron Wolfe, of the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Isaac and undergraduate teammates are working to complete an entire low-Earth-orbiting satellite mission, from design to construction, launch, and operations.
• Reid Yamura, a senior in Electrical Engineering, will continue working on the electrical power subsystems for the Kumu A‘o CubeSat team. Working with mentors Lloyd French and Byron Wolfe, of the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Reid and undergraduate teammates are working to develop, test, launch, and operate a CubeSat mission.

University of Hawai‘i at Hilo:

• Jordan Olive, a freshman in Computer Science, will research dust deflection systems for use on instruments, cameras, and solar panels in the lunar environment. This will be a continuation and expansion of Jordan's summer, 2008 internship project at NASA Ames Research Center in California. Jordan's project is titled "Applying Electrodynamic Dust Shield Technology to an Optical Surface on a Lunar Rover." Serving as mentor is Riley Ceria, Robotics Advisor for the College of Engineering.
• David Trang, a senior in Astronomy, Geology, and Physics, will work with mentor Dr. Bo Reipurth of the Institute for Astronomy on a project monitoring stars in the Orion Nebula using two robotic telescopes at Mauna Loa Observatory. The title of David's project is "Surveying Stellar Flares: Preparing for the VYSOS Telescope."

CanSat Fellows:

Space Grant Community College campuses are sponsoring engineering programs for students to design, build, and test CanSats. A CanSat is a scientific experiment package, the size of a soda can and commonly launched by weather balloon or small rocket, designed to retrieve photographic, temperature, pressure, and altitude data for near-Earth, low-atmosphere experiments. The CanSat students from the different campuses have worked together and participated in ARLISS Competitions (A Rocket Launch for International Student Satellites).

• Premo Ames, Todd Esposito and Joleen Iwaniec, Windward Community College, are working with mentors Joe Ciotti, Jake Hudson, and Helen Rapozo, on "Holomua--The Way Forward: Continuing ARLISS Efforts." Their current efforts are focused on re-designing the electronics for quicker data acquisition and faster communications, as well as speedier location determination. In addition, their experiments continue to determine the most efficient airframe design.

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa:

• Yu Ming Cai, a senior in Mechanical Engineering, will work with mentor Dr. Marcelo Kobayashi of the Department of Mechanical Engineering on a project titled, "Analysis and Design of the Thermal Control Sub-System of LEO-1". Yu Ming's thermal modeling and analyses are relevant to all small satellite projects.

Kauai Community College:

• Eric Fune: "Modulation of Light (laser) for Audio Transmission"
• Keelan Sakuda: "Space Warrior"
• Bradly Wilcox: "Nature of Light with Applications to Astronomy and Biophotonics"