Northwest Nazarene University’s RockSat-X engineering team, in collaboration with Boise-based American Semiconductor, Inc. (ASI), launched an experimental payload on a sub-orbital sounding rocket to 100 miles above the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday. The payload parachuted down into the Atlantic, where it was recovered by ship and returned to the NNU research lab for post-flight data analysis by the team and their collaborators. The team is sponsored by ASI and the NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium. Engineering Manager Dale Wilson is serving as the team’s mentor from ASI.

The team’s goal is to test flexible analog-to-digital converter ICs developed by ASI, called FleXform-ADC. This team, led by senior engineering major Jameson Krueger, also includes senior physics major Paul Zukowski and sophomore engineering major Scott Thatcher. The team will also be testing electronics developed by another NNU engineering team, which is working on CubeSat designs with Made in Space, Inc. 

The launch is the culmination of a project that began last September, which has been carried out under the mentorship of NNU engineering professors Dan Lawrence and Stephen Parke. Lawrence and the team worked closely with NASA and the other university teams involved at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia since August 3 in preparation for the launch.

ASI, the industry leader in flexible integrated circuits and flexible hybrid systems development as well as services provider to create flexible ICs, recently released the FleXform-ADC™ Flexible Hybrid Development Kit, providing everyone access to the same technology used by NNU on the RockSat-X. Users can fabricate sensors directly on the FleXform-ADC flexible circuit board or attach pre-fabricated sensors for a system-level demonstration. For more information about ASI, which supports all aspects of flexible design and processing, visit americansemi.com. 

American Semiconductor is a registered trademark of American Semiconductor, Inc. FleXform, FleXform-ADC, FleX, Silicon-on-Polymer, FleX-ADC, FleX-MCU and FleX-IC are trademarks of American Semiconductor, Inc.

--Northwest Nazarene University