Annual Meeting

Presentation Summary:
McKenna Cisler will present on Brown Space Engineering, a club at Brown University which created Brown's and Rhode Island's first satellite, EQUiSat. The club employs a novel low-cost engineering approach and focuses on educational outreach and the democratization of space—EQUiSat itself was built using commercial off-the-shelf parts (it costs $3,776.61) and features a flashing LED payload that can be seen from the ground. Mckenna will highlight the club's history and the 8 years of work that went into EQUiSat, as well as the club's outreach projects, high altitude balloon program, and the latest work on the club's next satellite. This satellite, dubbed "FutureSat," will feature an articulating robot arm with a camera and will be designed to allow everyone from kids to Amateur Radio enthusiasts to interact with the satellite through its arm and camera.

Bio:
McKenna Cisler came to Brown in Fall 2016 from New Hampshire, intending to major in computer science. He joined the "flight software" team of Brown Space Engineering as the club was two years away from launching its first satellite, EQUiSat, and eventually contributed to several components of the satellite's operating system. After EQUiSat deployed successfully and began functioning in July 2018, Mckenna worked on ground software, telemetry analysis, and radio systems (he had received his Amateur Radio license that year), and was elected as the technical lead of the club. As EQUiSat continued to perform admirably for the rest of 2018 and into 2019, the club began to transition to planning the next satellite. Mckenna helped apply what he had learned working on EQUiSat to the club's efforts to design FutureSat, and today the club is working toward submitting an application for launch in Fall 2019.