SEDS@UMD AIAA SciTech Travel Funding

The UMD SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space) Chapter is on a quest to fly Undergraduate student designed and developed hardware on a near-term CubeSat mission. The team has already secured a payload on another CubeSat set to launch in 2026, and now intends to built their own: the first ever undergraduate-built CubeSat to launch from UMD!

There are two technologies of primary interest as payload: an in-house GPS that does not have velocity/altitude restrictions and a Phase Change Material (PCM) unit to thermally control temperature oscillations on the CubeSat. 

Over the past year and a half, the SEDS-PCM team has designed, constructed, and tested a ground-based PCM unit as a preliminary step to designing and fabricating the Flight Model unit. This fully undergraduate team now has the opportunity to present their findings on this ground-based unit at the 2026 AIAA SciTech Forum - the largest Aerospace conference in the world.

Contributions made will support travel costs for the team to the Forum in January 2026. 

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