By Sydney Dahle ’21

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On the third floor of the Engineering Lab building on Utah State’s Logan campus, the Get Away Special (GAS) Team resides in a small, nondescript room.

This club, comprised entirely of undergraduate researchers, is dedicated to the improvement and research of CubeSats.

What are CubeSats, you may ask? They are a class of nanosatellites, often no larger than a Rubik’s Cube, that provide cost-effective options for scientific research compared to their larger, more expensive cousins.

CJ Wayland, the lead missions operations engineer for the team, serves as ground control and monitors the thousands of CubeSats launched into space as they pass over Cache Valley. One, called GreenCube, was launched by Sapienza University of Rome in 2022 and carries microgreens for an experiment of plant cultivation in microgravity.

Other members of the team include Coordinator Ethan Wayland, CJ’s younger brother, and subcommittee leads Tyler Day and Lorenzo High. All three are instrumental in orchestrating the team’s current project, the Get Away Special Radio and Antenna Transparency Satellite (GASRATS).

“GASRATS is a demonstration mission focused on testing a transparent antenna in space, called an S-band patch antenna,” Ethan explains. “The goal is to test how well it works in harsh conditions of low-Earth orbit. We’re hoping that our data can be used for future missions by the commercial industry.”

Dr. Reyhan Baktur, an associate professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, will design the antenna. She was approached by the group after giving a keynote speech at an annual conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

“I have been working on antennas for CubeSats for many years,” Baktur says. “For my speech, I used the GAS team’s previous satellite as a real-world example and explained how my antenna would work on that satellite. Collaborating with the team seemed like the next reasonable step.”

In 2022, the GAS team launched the Get Away Special Passive Attitude Control Satellite (GASPACS) to demonstrate inflatable structures in space. This was made possible by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, which funds and launches university and nonprofit satellites for research experiments. In 2024, GASRATS was one of 10 CubeSat proposals accepted into the initiative and will launch in 2026.

The team is currently made up of 15 members, including mechanical and aerospace engineers, electrical engineers, and physics majors. Day serves as the lead payload engineer and High is the lead avionics engineer.

“I’ve always wanted to be an engineer for as long as I can remember,” High reflects. “My brother was really into SpaceX launches, and I started watching them with him. I thought space engineering would be cool, and USU has a lot of good space programs and the Space Dynamics Lab. I saw news that they had launched a satellite and knew I wanted to be involved. I emailed the GAS team while on my mission [for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] because I was so ecstatic to get to school and join them.”

While High works with his team on an electrical board that attaches to a camera, Day works with his team on communication between the solar panel and antenna. Although many CubeSats are similar in creation, GASRATS has an entirely new electrical board for the altitude control system and a different payload.

“We hope it will be easier this round because we can learn from the mistakes we made with GASPACS,” Ethan says. “Certain aspects will be the same, but the major focus of the satellite is completely different from last time.”

A secondary payload called Bring Utah Students to Space is designed to spark interest in space technology and radio communication in Utah’s K-12 students. The educational outreach program spans over 945 schools and 650,000 students. The educational demonstrations will teach students about radio communications at varying levels of complexity, using a portable antenna and demo satellite to communicate across a classroom. As a highlight, students can submit their names to be included on the flight model of GASRATS, creating a personal connection to the mission.

“We hope this will inspire students to get more involved, hopefully sparking a lifelong passion in space and technology,” Ethan added.

In addition to working with the GAS team, Ethan Wayland, Day, and High are working directly with Baktur as a part of the undergraduate research program at USU. This program facilitates collaboration with professionals who not only guide the students but learn alongside them.

“The best part about the research is that I get to dedicate a lot more time to what I’m passionate about, which in this case is GASRATS,” Day says. “It’s also nice to have one-on-one time to work with professors and people that are knowledgeable. It’s easier to ask questions to your research advisor rather than go to office hours where 20 to 30 students are also trying to ask questions.”

High agrees.

“We’re getting hands-on experience with systems engineering, which isn’t usually covered in-depth for undergraduates,” he exclaims. “During my internship, terms like PDR (Preliminary Design Review) and CDR (Critical Design Review) came up constantly, and I realized I already knew them from working on the GAS Team. It’s been incredibly valuable.”

Ethan credits his participation in undergraduate research with accelerating his learning and understanding of engineering principles beyond what’s taught in the classroom.

“When I joined the GAS team, I started working on electrical projects without much experience, since in the [electrical and computer engineering] department, you don’t touch a circuit board until sophomore year,” he says. “Although the fundamentals and math are important, it felt strange to only now, in my junior year, be diving into the practical side of my degree. Being on the GAS team gave me early exposure to this hands-on work, which made my classes much easier to follow and allowed me to truly engage with the material rather than just learning it.”

The GAS team’s journey exemplifies how academic theory, when paired with practical experience, creates a strong foundation for students’ careers. Each member’s unique background and dedication to the mission reflect the team’s core values: curiosity, persistence, and the drive to reach new heights in space research.

“Don’t be discouraged when you don’t know something,” Ethan encourages. “You’re not an expert and you’re not expected to be an expert as an undergraduate. Be excited to learn and don’t be too hard on yourself when a challenge rolls around.”