Oops, we did it again...

CubeSat Team SJSU hits the SJ Mercury News.

I guess I should sort of explain how I got involved with this whole "rogue band of students" and started building a satellite.

Well, believe it or not, it started off on a boat.

Let's set the scene, shall we?

Fall 2007, San Jose State University. I was a sophomore who had found herself in the interesting position of vice-commodore of the Spartan Sailing Team, after only having stepped onto a sailboat for the first time two semesters before. Needless to say, being from Modesto, CA, where most people's boat have motors, there, ah, was a steep learning curve for me. (They used to call me Captain Capsize, but anyway...)

The former commodore and our alumni advisor, Kevin Booker, had recommended that some of our team take the school's sailing class to get some extra practice in. Who happened to be in the class but the actual former vice-commodore of the team from a few years back: Eric Stackpole.

After some quick introduction, my teammates and I developed a fast friendship with the goofy, mechanical engineering major, who was taking the class for P.E. credit. He imparted some wisdom to us new kids and offered to help out team out in any way he could. Soon enough, we were tossing around footballs, boat to boat, during classtime.

One particularly calm Thursday afternoon, Eric and I were sitting on a Sunfish, lazing around Lake Cunningham, when he mentioned to me that he had put together a satellite-building club with some of his friends. He described to me how he and his friend Kevin Dudley had gotten the papers signed and some people recruited and overall, he was very excited. Somehow, his confidence made it all seem so plausible and I couldn't even feel shocked.

"Oh, that's neat," I said and adjusted the rudder. We chatted about what it would look like and what it might do and that was about it. We headed back to shore and went home.

A few weeks later, I'd been reading the Spartan Daily, SJSU's campus newspaper, in my room when I spotted an article about Eric's "satellite-building club." I told him about it on the car ride home after sailing class.

"You saw it?" he said. "That's awesome. We were so excited to have them come out and talk to us."

"Yeah. Are you guys really going to go on the vomit comet?"

"Uh..." he said.

Apparently, in the excitement of being interviewed, some people had gotten a little confused or carried away.

"You know, you oughta write a press release for the future, or get someone to help you talk with media, if you have trouble " I mentioned, off-hand.

"Hm, yeah." A beat. "Think you could do that for us?"

And that's how I got roped into this crazy space mess.

Unfortunately, my reign in the Sailing Team had to end, but I was manuevering from sailboats to satellites too soon to really mind. Three years later, we're still at it, fabbing electrical boards and proposing paint-shaker vibration tests.

Eric presents our concept and design today at Cal Poly and although we're excited, I can't help but recall that lazy day on Lake Cunningham, when anything seemed so plausible, it bored me.