DemoSat Program

High Altitude Balloon Payloads

The DemoSat program provides COSGC students with frequent, low-cost access to the edge of space. Students are challenged to design, fabricate, launch, recover, and analyze data from balloon payloads on which they design their own experiments ranging from atmospheric characterization to bacteria experiments and technology demonstrations.

Launches occur three times per year - April, July/August, and November/December (see expandable schedule below for specific dates).

The DemoSat User's Guide details the balloons' capabilities, organizational responsibilities, and payload design and testing requirements.

The DemoSat program began in 2002, with the first payloads (CSU, PPCC, CU, ASC, UNC, and CSM) launching in August 2003.

Contact Veronica at vcorral@colorado.edu for more information.

2024/2025 DemoSat Schedule

The schedule below is preliminary and all dates are subject to change. Reviews may be set up any time during the proposed week. Bernadette will communicate directly with the Affiliate Director or Team Lead to schedule: [Please note: no reviews on Fridays!] The launch provider requires final weights must be reported by the Wednesday of flight week. This means all FRRs MUST be completed by that Wednesday.

Event	Fall 2024	Spring 2025*	Summer 2025*
Kickoff Telecon	September 5 @ 2:00 pm	January 30 @ 2:00 pm	May 22 @ 10:00 am
Preliminary Design Review	Sept 16 - 20	February 10 - 13	June 2 - 5
Critical Design Review	Oct 14 - 18	March 10 - 13	June 30 - Jul 3
Flight Readiness Review	Nov 4 - 6^	March 31 - Apr 2^	July 28 - 30^
LAUNCH/FLIGHT DAY!!	November 9	April 5	August 2
Final Reports Due	December 13	May 5	August 22

* Preliminary Schedule (subject to change)
^ All FRRs MUST be completed by Wednesday of flight week so we can report final weights to the launch provider by EOD that Wednesday.

Design Reviews - SLIDES REQUIRED!

Design and readiness reviews are a universal part of the engineering process, and the DemoSat program will follow standard industry practices in this regard. All reviews will take place via online webinar using the ZOOM online tool. Electronic copies of slides are due to vcorral@colorado.edu, 24 hours prior to each scheduled review. Teams can use the review templates provided here or use their own.