Daniel Hsu had an interest in science well before he attended the University of Washington or even Decatur High School. He is now putting that interest into motion as a member of the UW CubeSat team.
“I was always interested in science technology since I was very young,” Hsu said. “Even in elementary school, I always enjoyed non-fiction more than children’s books.”
Hsu is a geology major at the University of Washington and is hoping to become a geo-technician or a civil engineer in the future.
“I came to the [Earth and Space Science] department because it offers a good foundation in both sciences,” Hsu said.
While attending Decatur High School, Hsu took a class on the principles of engineering taught by Decatur teacher Sean Smith. He says that class helped him fuel his passion for science and engineering.
He also was active in many science related extra-curricular activities in high school.
As a member of the CubeSat team, Hsu is helping to build a small, cost-effective satellite that can make it into space. If all goes according to plan, it will be orbiting the moon in the near future.
He noticed the group while browsing through different University of Washington courses during his registration. The group’s objective piqued his interest.
“This is the first time I’m able to apply what I’ve learned into a real-life application,” Hsu said.
His role on the team is a power instructor, in charge of fitting the pieces together and powering them.
“My role is primarily computer modeling,” Hsu said. “We model the parts and there’s a lot of playing around with the design on the computer right now.”
Currently, the team is wrapping up the community outreach portion of their program. They set a goal of $12,000 to fundraise earlier this year and surpassed their goal before their deadline this Thursday with over $13,000 in donations.
“We were pretty much collecting the resources to get started for next year,” Hsu said. “While we have the ability to assemble the pieces together, we need the resources to get it done. A lot of these parts are high-tech and expensive.”
The satellite will be entered into NASA’s Cube Quest Challenge. They are hoping to be one of three satellites that will earn a spot on the 2018 Orion Capsule launch. The satellite will then be able to orbit around the moon.
“We want to be finished by 2018, which is a year after I graduate,” Hsu said. “That should provide me with enough time to contribute to the CubeSat team.”
The team will first compete in a ground tournament in August. The winners will receive prize money based on how highly they rate in mission safety and the probability of success. There will be $5 million in prizes given out throughout the entire challenge.
