Spacecraft Development Laboratory

A class 1,000/10,000 clean room for NanoSatellite Fabrication and Assembly and MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) Microfabrication has been developed at the Morehead State University Space Science Center. The Spacecraft Development Laboratory will allow the fabrication, assembly, and integration of flight-ready components of micro and nano satellites and ultimately support the fabrication of prototype MEMS/MRAs and allow the fabrication of commercial numbers of these devices.

Spacecraft systems assembled and integrated (to date) in the MSU Clean Room include:

The Cosmic X-Ray Background Nanosatellite—a 2U CubeSat selected by NASA for a flight opportunity in 2012
TechSat-1—a collaboration between MSU, Radiance Technologies, Honeywell, and Tethers Unltd. To build a high-power 3-U CubeSat for the U.S. Space and Missile Defense Command,
UniSat-5—a collaboration with the University of Rome to build a 15 kg microsatellite designed to measure the polarization of gamma-ray bursts.


MEMS for Space Applications: NASA and the aerospace industry have a special interest in MEMS technology. Some of the systems utilizing MEMS devices for space applications in planning our under development at MSU are:

• Microthrusters
• Mass Spectrometers
• Magnetometers
• RF Switches
• Microgyroscopes
• Microsatellites