Ke Ao
Ke Ao is a low-cost 1U CubeSat designed and developed by Team Laniakea, an undergraduate team of engineering students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, in collaboration with the Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory.
The mission's goal is to take one or more pictures from space and automatically identify the Hawaiian Islands using machine learning algorithms. Its secondary goal is to promote aerospace education and workforce training in Hawaiʻi. The project started in the fall of 2019, inspired by the Hiapo CubeSat.
The design targets a cost of no more than $10,000 in built parts and launch readiness through the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). Ke Ao has seven subsystems, uses magnetic torquers for attitude control, and returns data through HSFL ground stations and the SatNOGS network.
Students took part through the Ke Ao Vertically Integrated Project (VIP), and Ke Ao, together with Hiapo, inspired NASA's Artemis CubeSat Kit developed at HSFL.
At a glance
