About the Texas Spacecraft Laboratory (TSL)

The TSL is a student-driven research group at the University of Texas at Austin dedicated to designing and building small satellites, securing launches into space, and operating them once in orbit.  Our goals are to perform space-based experiments to develop and demonstrate new technologies. 

More information about the TSL can be found in the TSL Organization link below.

Spacecraft for Optical Based Position Estimation Mission 1 (SCOPE-1)

One of TSL's newest missions, SCOPE-1  was proposed to NASA in 2023 and is funded by NASA's Small Satellite Technology program and the CubeSat Launch Initiative.  The mission aims to develop and validate an autonomous Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) estimation algorithm to enable surface-feature-based navigation and timing. The primary objective is to demonstrate PNT capabilities in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) as a proof of concept prior to a near-lunar demonstration.  The Concept of Operations for the mission is described in Figure 1 below.

More information about SCOPE-1 can be found in the Mission and Research Paper links below.

Disclaimer:  All technical data and designs are ITAR restricted and export controlled. Images included in this webpage are taken from a publicly available research paper on the SCOPE-1 Mission.

My Contributions

Lead Structures and Integration Engineer | Mar 2024 - Jan 2025

From March 2024 to January 2025, I Co-lead the Structures Subsystem for the SCOPE-1 mission of the Texas Spacecraft Laboratory (TSL). This mission is in collaboration with UT Austin graduate Researchers, NASA CubeSat Space Launch Initiative (CSLI) and NASA Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP).

As the lead, I was responsible for the structural and physical component integration of the entire CubeSat Bus. This has required active collaboration with other subsystem leads and members to effectively develop and manage the full CAD assembly using Solidworks CAD to verify CubeSat Design Specifications (CDS) compliance and component fitment. I also conducted trade studies for the selection of important components, such as the Mechanical Ground System Equipment (MGSE) and primary structure, ensuring mission requirements and deadlines are successfully met. 

An overview of the satellite and my team's integration work is shown in Figures 2 and 3 below.

Structures and Integration Engineer | August 2025 - Present

After returning from amazing internships at Blue Origin and Bell Flight, I returned to continue supporting component integration and development of the SCOPE-1 Satellite.