New Mexico State University

Office of the Vice President for Research

Southwest Regional Spaceport SubCluster

The Southwest Regional Spaceport, in combination with WSMR, will have the capacity to put multiple satellites in orbit or to send payloads to remote parts of the globe in a short turn-around time and at a low cost. With existing satellite and sensor systems already in place, this partnership represents a unique capability for economic and rapid launches. As a complement to the Spaceport development, the Flight Management System will address issues of overland space flight safety, of specific concern to the FAA.

NMSU, through its Telemetry Center of Excellence has helped build a set of satellites under the university nanosatellite program that was launched as part of the Delta IV Heavy demonstration mission in December 2004. Follow-on work within the university nanosatellite program for an all-NMSU satellite design to study cosmic rays is currently being completed, augmenting the basic design with robotic capabilities. Over 50 students from engineering, physics, and computer science have been involved in these two satellite design efforts, and their experiences and capabilities can be used by industry, researchers, and educators. The completed satellites can be adapted for use by industry to provide proof-of-concept testbeds for a variety of applications. The nanosatellite work in the Telemetry Center can assist a commercial space enterprise and is training the future engineers and scientists for this new, vitally important industry.