One of the big challenges in education is getting kids interested in STEM subjects in elementary school and sustaining interest throughout middle and high school. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, STEM occupations are projected to grow by almost 11 percent by 2031 but opportunities to engage in safe, hands-on science that requires solving developmentally appropriate, real-world problems rarely exists. That’s where SilverSat, a student-built CubeSat comes in.
A team of very patient middle and high schoolers have worked and waited through a pandemic, three presidential elections, and at least eight high school graduations to get their shot at Earth orbit with a unique project – a tweeting satellite that takes pictures to order from space.
Launching SilverSat: Student-Built Project
SilverSat founder and organizer Dave Copeland inspects the partly assembled CubeSat with student team members Nicholas Niski, Matthew Kay, Anthony Salvado and Matthew Salvado in 2024.
This Sunday, September 14 the SilverSat team is finally going to space. The student-built CubeSat, with its camera and radio, is scheduled to launch with other science projects on Northrop Grumman’s NG 23 resupply mission to the International Space Station aboard the reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket out of Cape Canaveral. The Sunday launch is scheduled for 6:11 pm and can be watched live beginning at 5:30pm ET here.
Mission: Tweet Pictures to Order from Space
Request a photo through the SilverSat Operations Page
Once released, the student-built CubeSat will tweet photographs to order from orbit. The middle and high school students who made up the original project team in 2017 conceived the plan. The final generation of students has taken it to the finish line in 2025. Their idea: a satellite in orbit could tweet directly to followers from space.
Want to make your own order for a picture from space? Visit the SilverSat website. To see the images from orbit follow SilverSat on X at @SilverSatorg.
Anyone, anywhere, can choose a spot in the Northern Hemisphere they would like photographed. The SilverSat team will determine if it’s feasible and calculate when the satellite will reach the best vantage point, get the shot, and the satellite itself will post it on X (formerly Twitter).
“It really is that CubeSat tweeting that picture directly,” says David Copeland, a Silver Spring, Maryland engineer who started the project.
About SilverSat: Student-Built CubeSat
The CubeSat, 10 cm by 10 cm by 10 cm, contains everything it needs to power itself, receive commands, navigate, take pictures and transmit them back to Earth from orbit.
The dozens of middle and high school students who have made up the SilverSat team designed and built the 10 cubic cm (4 cubic inch) CubeSat from scratch. Members have filled the aluminum frame with sophisticated electronics, a computer, a radio, an antenna, a power system, and a guidance system.
Students have learned how to write computer code, how to design complicated electronics and how to fit everything into a small metal frame. They have learned how to manage projects to NASA’s exacting standards and how to present their progress to a panel who would decide whether and when they’d actually get a ride into space.
Most of all, they have learned patience.
History of SilverSat: Student-Built CubeSat
Founding members, Emily Barr and Chloe Rutledge sketch out the idea that became SilverSat in 2017.
“I started working on this in March of 2014,” says Copeland. Copeland met with parents of middle and high school students in his neighborhood to start the organization, get the necessary paperwork in place, and started recruiting and meeting with students in the spring of 2017.
Copeland, himself a space communications systems specialist, knew it would take time and patience to navigate NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. “We sent our proposal in to NASA in the fall of 2020 and we were accepted into the program in 2021,” he says.
The pandemic forced many of the meetings to go virtual. One launch got scrubbed. Launch dates have been moved. Sunday’s launch may or may not happen.
Education Value of the Student-Built CubeSat
SilverSat President, Dave Copeland, teaching members about satellites in 2019
Most of NASA’S educational CubeSat missions have involved university teams. SilverSat – named for its Silver Spring origins – is one of the few to involve middle and high school students. But this student-built CubeSat is no kiddie spacecraft.
“The kids have learned so much,” says Copeland. “They have learned electronics. We have had several kids now get their amateur radio licenses. We have had kids stepping into leadership positions.”
Mentors had to help students find their own interests – a big challenge when working with students ranging in age from 11 to 18. “You have to approach every kid on their own level,” he says.
The payload board controls the satellite.
And it’s paid off. Many SilverSat alumni are now studying STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) subjects in college or university. A few have graduated from college and some are working as engineers.Isaac Schofer, now a 20-year-old electrical engineering student at Capitol Technology University in Laurel, Maryland, is one. “I do believe SilverSat has successfully set me on a career in engineering,” Schofer says.
SilverSat participants learning about orbits in 2019
He plans to drive to Cape Canaveral to watch Sunday’s launch with his family. “I felt I was so involved in the project that I simply could not leave it,” Schofer says.
About 20 students and family members plan to be on hand at the Cape for the launch. Another 25 or so plan a watch party in Silver Spring.
The work doesn’t end with a successful launch, says Copeland. Each request must be handled by a student. Students will have to find the latitude and longitude of each spot and figure out if the satellite can achieve the right camera angle. “So the kids must think, when we contact the spacecraft, what do we have to do?” he said.
Want to order the student-built CubeSat to take a picture from space?
Visit the SilverSat website at https://silversat.org/operations/. To see the images from orbit, follow SilverSat on X at @SilverSatorg.
SilverSat also is on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and is featured on YouTuber Jeff Geerling’s video: Pis in Space.
I am a proud that my kids were founding members of SilverSat. I’ve served on the Board since the idea was conceived. I’m excited for launch and so very proud of our many members who have been a part of SilverSat over the years. No compensation was received for this post.
