PORTLAND STATE AEROSPACE SOCIETY
OPEN SOURCE AEROSPACE!
The Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS) is an interdisciplinary student group here at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. We design, build and fly ultra-low-cost and totally open source rockets, liquid-fuel rocket engines, satellites, and satellite ground stations.
We're students from all majors -- engineering, math, physics, even business! -- working together on really, really hard systems level engineering projects. We're like an adorable little space program right here in Portland. And we're not only undergraduate students, we're also students from local community colleges, industry advisors from local industry who work with our teams, and even high school students. At PSAS, we believe that the future of aerospace will be much brighter if we share information freely for the benefit of all.
Looking for our tech? PSAS uses Git on GitHub as our main version control system. Feel free to browse through PSAS project repositories here.
OUR MISSION
Portland State Aerospace Society's (PSAS) primary mission is to give hands-on, interdisciplinary, and team-based systems engineering and systems management experience to students using stupidly hard aerospace systems. Our secondary mission is to design, build, test, and publish low-cost and open source rocket, rocket engine, satellite, and satellite ground station designs.
OUR PROJECTS
AMATEUR ROCKETS
PSAS builds state-of-the-art high-power amateur rockets out of both composites and isogrid structures.
LIQUID FUEL PROPULSION
PSAS builds small-scale liquid fuel rocket engines. We even have a test stand you can build, too, called the minimal test stand (minTS).
NANOSATELLITES
(CUBESATS)
(CUBESATS)
PSAS designed, built, and flew Oregon's very first satellite! We have more on the way, all based on our open source, modular CubeSat system anyone can build.
GROUND STATIONS
The University Class Open Ground Station (UniClOGS) allows us -- and you too -- to talk to satellites.
UPCOMING EVENTS & LAUNCHES
(Dates and times are frequently adjusted in order to facilitate a successful launch)
October 2024
Launch Vehicle: LV3.1, Launch 14 (L-14)
FAQs
WHAT IS OPEN SOURCE?
Open source means that all research and designs that come from PSAS activities are published under an "open source" license. This means you can use our designs, and that the "source" to the designs - the software code, CAD drawings, etc. - are kept in the public domain. Yes, you can build all of our tech! And you can make it better, too!
I HAVE NO SPACE EXPERIENCE, BUT I WANT TO HELP, CAN I JOIN?
We love all space nerds, no matter your experience. We are a club of all majors and ages! Check out our How To Get Involved page!
CAN STUDENTS FROM OTHER UNIVERSITIES JOIN?
Yes! We love working with students from all over! Check out our How To Get Involved Page to get started! We are excited to have you!