Ravinder Bhatia and Brian Keating help
students display their satellite mock-up.

A little help from Caltech friends

Last fall, 32 students at Littlerock High School, east of Lancaster, weren’t thinking about their new textbooks and teachers. Instead they were focused on the satellite they had to finish building before June.

With the help of Caltech postdoctoral scholar Ravinder Bhatia, the students designed and built a satellite mock-up that, if deployed, would observe stratospheric ozone depletion in the northern hemisphere over a three-year period.

The students gave a presentation to Caltech faculty members and researchers, JPL engineers, and a TRW engineer in Beckman Institute auditorium on May 24. They presented their mission design and displayed the satellite mock-up for inspection. The students, mostly juniors and seniors plus a few sophomores, come from economically disadvantaged homes, and are taking astronomy and chemistry classes taught by Lee Syer.

Bhatia, a postdoctoral scholar in observational cosmology, has advised the students on the technical and managerial aspects of the project, which was built at Littlerock High and in Caltech’s physics machine shop. Since October he has gone to the school about once a month, sometimes accompanied by postdoctoral scholar Brian Keating and physics machine shop supervisor Ricardo Paniagua. Bhatia also has arranged tours of JPL and the Owens Valley Radio Observatory for the students.

His goal was to give the students real-world problems and encourage them to discover solutions on their own, as opposed to lecturing to them. “I also wanted to show them some of the opportunities out there that they could pursue, and I wanted to encourage them to go to college,” he said.

Bhatia said it was difficult for the students to understand that he was a resource for the project but not the “answer man.” He said, “It is the first time that they have been in that kind of position.” The students also learned the importance of communication and teamwork. “Learning by participating and experiencing has been exciting, valuable, and productive for them.”

The students gained an understanding of the complexities of satellite telemetry, payload, and launch, as well as thermal, mechanical, and electrical design. They now have substantial experience in graphic design, editing, making presentations, and time management. “They’ve had to do so much work on this on top of all their other studies,” Bhatia said. “It has definitely inspired a lot of them to pursue their careers, whether it is in science or the arts. The main thing for me has been to see them grow in confidence and see what they really can create if given the opportunity and a little encouragement.”
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