The Portland State Aerospace Society wants to launch a miniature satellite into orbit Print
View full sizePORTLAND STATE AEROSPACE SOCIETYEvery year the Portland State Aerospace Society takes a rocket out to the desert east of Bend and launches it into the sky. Then members celebrate at a pub.In terms of sophistication, the rockets built by the Portland State Aerospace Society fit right between amateur rocketry and NASA. In other words, these guys aren't just some oddballs blowing things up in the desert. And this group of community members and students has a pretty lofty goal: shooting a miniature satellite into orbit. "There's a difference between playing around with something and elevating it to the level of science, pushing the envelope," said Nathan Bergey, the society's chief physicist and self-appointed chief evangelist. "It's easy to build a rocket; it's hard to do it right." The society builds low-cost, open-source rockets that feature sophisticated electrical, navigational and communication systems. Even though Bergey admits shooting a nanosatellite into orbit verges on crackpot, it holds a special place in the imaginations of society members and guides each project as they make small steps toward outer space. Nowadays, the society consists mostly of engineers, physicist and computer scientists, but it was originally started as an opportunity for engineering students to get some hands-on experience. "What happened was all of these science types came out of the woodwork and kind of stuck on us," joked Andrew Greenberg, project manager. Greenberg now teaches a class at PSU in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. He first co-founded the society when he was still in grad school, back in 1998. Since then, the group has gone from a 3-foot rocket to a 12-foot one. View full sizeJENNY FURNISS/SPECIAL TO THE OREGONIANNathan Bergey works on one of the Portland State Aerospace Society's rockets. Bergey is the society's chief evangelist and chief physicist.Each year, they take their rocket into the desert to launch, usually at a site east of Bend in an area of land cleared of brush and owned by members of Oregon Rocketry, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting amateur rocketry. An audience from Portland, mostly friends and family members, comes out to watch the launch, then heads into Bend to celebrate at a pub. Last year, their rocket soared to 15,800 feet. To date, the highest launch was in 2002, when the rocket peaked at 18,000 feet. "It's years of work for a minute and a half of flight time," Greenberg said. Faculty adviser Bart Massey considers the society unique on an international scale in its level of technological sophistication and its embrace of open-source hardware -- making the blueprints of electrical and mechanical parts available to anyone. This philosophy of sharing knowledge is a strong guiding principle in the society. "Every single other major group that has built a rocket has done so with at least one level of closed source," Bergey said. "They either don't release their software, or don't describe their hardware or don't even have photographs of their launches." As the Portland State Aerospace Society moves into more and more complex territory, its funding needs grow. Members keep costs low by building pieces of equipment rather than purchasing them new. Each launch costs about $3,000, and the group is still in debt to past members for the last launch. The next launch is scheduled for the end of summer, and members are trying to raise $30,000 for the launch, other expenses and to build an improved rocket. Aerospace Society
The Portland State Aerospace Society meets Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Room 86-01 of the Fourth Avenue Building at Portland State University. For more information and to confirm meeting location, email . New members are welcome.
"Ideally, we're trying to raise about $50,000 to get us through the next few years," Greenberg said. At its meeting last week, the society gathered in a basement room at PSU. Members form into groups and chat about their projects and lives -- some have stories about childhood dreams of becoming an astronaut or hopes to study astronautical engineering in grad school. But soon the group grows quiet as a documentary about Yuri Gagarin flashes onto a large projection screen -- it's the 50th anniversary of the first man's journey into outer space. The society may be holed up in a dim basement watching the adventures of Gagarin, but their minds are trained on a much higher plain.
--Jenny Furniss, Special to The Oregonian What do Portland city employees make?