Jessica Arlas from MXL presented her paper GPS Results and Position Accuracy of RAX Mission at the Regional AIAA Student Conference held today at the University of Michigan. She did a great job presenting and the talk was well-received by the audience. The judges liked her paper and presentation too and she won first place in the Undergraduate category! Jessica will get to travel to the ASM conference next January and her paper will be published.
She motivated her work by describing the RAX mission, and the need for GPS to provide the spatial and temporal resolution necessary for the science goals. Next, she described on-orbit results; including carrier-to-noise ratios and position accuracy. The RAX-2 GPS receiver has average position error below 4 m, which is significantly below the mission requirement of 1 km! Jessica also discussed the RAX-2 Two Line Elements, reflecting how our orbit is evolving. Nicely done Jessica!