A satellite designed to carry out science experiments developed by three groups of Maine middle and high schoolers will be launched into Earth's orbit Sunday night.
Students at Fryeburg Academy have developed an experiment to measure pollution in coastal waters. Falmouth High students will collect pictures to look at algal blooms, and Saco Middle schoolers will measure the heat-island effect by measuring light reflecting off the Earth.
Warren Ziegler, a Space Technologist at the University of Southern Maine, said the satellite named MESAT is one of a class of small satellites that take advantage of miniature electronics.
"Well, miniaturization in electronics makes it possible and the fact that a lot of kids are now into programming things like Raspberry Pi's and Ardweenos and miniature Sensors," Ziegler said. "It's an elongated box, that's about the size of a loaf of bread: four by four by 12 inches, with solar panel on the side, four cameras on the narrow end facing down and antennas sprouting off the sides."
NASA is paying the launch costs for the satellite, which will be fired into space from Vandenberg Space Force base in California. That will put MESAT into a polar orbit where it's expected to return data for at least two years.