M-Cubed maintains a diverse age range to ensure the retention and transition of knowledge from graduate and upperclass undergraduate students to underclass undergraduate students, usually in the form of leads to team members.  Upper-level undergraduates and a graduate student also form a systems engineering team taking on the roles of project manager and chief engineer.   M-Cubed also relies on input from senior lab members (graduate and upperclassman undergraduate students) and affiliated faculty in both informal meetings and formal design reviews for project advising.  The M-Cubed personnel organization is also the architecture for S3FL projects in general.

SYSTEMS

Kiril Dontchev
Project Manager

Kiko Dontchev will be graduating in December of 2008 with his B.S.E in Aerospace Engineering. He is currently an Executive Committee member in the laboratory and has been involved in various space systems projects since being a freshman. He spent 8 months working in the power and propulsion systems group at the Boeing Satellite Development Center and a summer at the NASA Glenn center. He plans to stick around for another year to complete his Masters in Space Systems engineering and to see his project through launch and mission success. In his free time, he enjoys watching Michigan sports along with hanging out with friends.


Michael Heywood
Chief Engineer

Michael Heywood will be graduating in April of 2010 with his B.S.E. in Aerospace Engineering and a minor in Physics. In addition to his work with M-Cubed, he is the Attitude Determination and Control Systems (ADCS) Lead for the Radio Aurora eXplorer (RAX) cubesat mission. Michael also has worked at Ledco-Chargeguard, an company in Plymouth, MI that makes docking ports for laptop computers, since September 2008. He plans to complete the Masters in Space Systems program after graduation so he can continue to work on space missions throughout his education. In his free time, Michael likes to DJ as a member of the Michigan Electronic Dance Music Association (MEDMA)

Ken Gmerek
Systems Team, Integration and Test Lead, High Altitude Solutions - Structures

Ken Gmerek will be graduating in April of 2011 with a B.S.E. in Aerospace Engineering. Joining the MCubed team in fall 2007, Ken has contributed to the project as a systems member and as the business team co-lead. During the summer, Ken will act as an interim systems lead overseeing the progress of the project and pushing it towards its CDR in fall 2008. In addition, he has begun the preliminary payload feasibility study for MCubed's 2nd generation cubesat. Ken is also a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and plays on an intramural hockey team. After graduation, he hopes to receive his masters in either Space Systems or Business Administration as well as work in the aerospace industry. Ken's hobbies include hockey, boating, traveling, and watching Michigan athletics.

Power and Electrical Leads

Ken "Scott" Tripp

Adam Avery
Power and Electrical Lead
Adam Avery will be graduating in April of 2011 with a B.S.E in Computer Science Engineering. MCubed is the first project Adam has been involved with at S3FL and is looking forward to seeing the project through to completion. Adam is also a member of the Leadership Committee of the University’s Engineering Counsel. After graduation, he hopes to begin a career with NASA, a dream he has had since elementary school.  In his free time, Adam enjoys playing videogames and spending time with friends.

Power and Electrical Team

Abishek Madhavan

Neil Dhingra

Daniel Meinzer

Command and Data Handling Lead

Brad Freyberg
Controls and Data Handling Lead
Brad Freyberg will be graduating in April of 2009 with his B.S.E in Computer Engineering. He also intends to obtain his Masters in Space Engineering here at the university, continuing specialization in controls and data handling. He has been active within S3FL since his freshman year, contributing to the first generation MClimber. Also an avid traveler Brad recently studied abroad in Melbourne, Australia. While not throwing "shrimp on the barby" he enjoys backpacking, mountain biking, and Michigan Hockey.

Command and Data Handling Team

Nicholas Underwood

Maksym Kloka

Trevor Trobel

Zachary Leland

Orbits and Controls Lead

Cole Heckathorn

Orbits and Controls Team

Clayton McPherson

Jon O'Kins

Raymond Liang

Chris Rossi

Payload Lead

Rafael Ramos

Payload Team

Justin Ball

Ben Fontneau

Nathan Lusk

Vikram Ivatury

Structures Leads

Fernando Saca
Structures Lead
Fernando Saca will be graduating in April of 2009 with a B.S.E in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently the structures lead for MCubed and has participated in previous project like C9-Reflight and TSATT. In his free time he enjoys time with friends and listening to music.

Gary Marx
Structures/Thermal Assistant Lead
Gary Marx is currently a Junior and will earn his B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering in April 2010. He is interested in manned spaceflight and is intrigued by the possibilities it can lead to. He spent his last summer working for the Electronic Warfare Division at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB. This next summer he will be spending this summer working at the Satellite Development Center of The Boeing Co.'s Integrated Defense Systems. In his spare time Gary like to hike, play percussion, read, and participate in a variety of sports.

Structures Team

Hetav Patel

Clarence Hanson

Devin Good

Brandon Blake

Former MCubed Members

Kartik Ghorkavi (Chief Engineer, 1 1/2 years) - Space Systems Loral

Richard Prasad (Payload Lead, I&T Lead, 1 1/2 years) - Orbital

Brad Freyberg (C&DH Lead, 2 years) - Space X

Bryan Lewandowski (C&DH Programmer, 1 1/2 years) - Boeing

Yang Li (Project Manager, 1/2 year) - Space X

Cameron Haag (Orbtis and Controls Lead, 1 year) - Northup Grumman

Matt Holmes - Northup Grumman

Nate Reagan - Northrup Grumman

Acknowledgments

The member thank S3FL, our supporting faculty in Prof. Peter Washabaugh, Prof. Brian Gilchrist, Prof. Nilton Renno, and Prof. Alec Gallimore, and the University of Michigan College of Engineering for their support technically and logistically. We’d also like to thank Yang Li, Selina Pan, Bradley Freyberg, Adam Avery, Fernando Saca, and Mike Lindsay for their support in putting this paper together. Finally, we would like to thank the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin for their funding and participation in this effort