Payload Applied Technology and Operations (PATO) Lab

The mission of the Payload Lab is to provide development, operations, design integration and testing support for university-class space research payloads and instrumentation for suborbital and microgravity flights with national and international research platforms.

Potential research topics in the lab include designing, developing, testing and building science payloads and rockets that can be used as testing platforms for research experiments. This multidisciplinary research allows faculty and students from various colleges to work together with various payload flight providers to ensure system-level testing, verification and debugging of requirements of payloads. As the lab grows and these technologies continue to mature, cross-college collaborations will expand with other universities and research institutions.

Ongoing collaborative research efforts are maturing technologies to send several payloads in 2019 aboard Blue Origin’s launch vehicle, and other payloads with PLD Space. 

Equipment

• Raise 3D N2 printer
• Vacuum chamber
• Two computers
• Flight hardware
• Basic lab equipment (soldering stations, thermal sensors, microscope)
• Rockets equipment