About

A.S.T.R.A. (Autonomous Sky Tracking and Recon Apparatus)

What is A.S.T.R.A.?

A.S.T.R.A. is an autonomous telescope system that can track celestial objects and capture high quality images of these objects. It is designed to be used in a remote location and is self-contained, with its own power source and communication system. A.S.T.R.A. is a project for the University of Arizona Senior Design Course. It is a collaboration between the University of Arizona and RTX. The goal of this project is to create a system that can work with different telescope types and configurations which allow for a wide range of applications. This system is designed to be used as an educational tool for students to learn about telescope optics and astronomy.

Team Members

Team Member 1
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Jack Lee - Team Lead

Major: Optical Engineering
Jack is from Littleton, Colorado. Some of his favorite hobbies are running and disc golf. Through this project, Jack has been most excited to grow stronger in leadership and understanding a complete system.

Team Member 2
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Jacob Missbrenner - Procurement Lead

Major: Electrical Engineering
Jacob was raised in San Ramon and now lives in Boise. Jacob enjoys backpacking and climbing. Through this project, Jacob has been most excited to work with Linux-based systems and apply hardware techniques in software (multi-threading, optimizing past compile time).

Team Member 3
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Owen Litz

Major: Optical Engineering
Owen is from Tucson, Arizona. Some of his favorite hobbies are 3D printing and swimming. Through this project, Owen has been most excited to capture high-quality images of celestial objects.

Team Member 4
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Sarah Aramburo

Major: Mechanical Engineering
Sarah is from Sonora, Mexico and now lives in Tucson. Some of her favorite hobbies are running and reading. Her favorite part of this project has been getting to model all of the mechanical system in SolidWorks.

Team Member 5
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Alexis Cervantes

Major: Electrical Engineering
Alexis is from Tucson, Arizona. He enjoys hiking and drawing. Through this project, Alexis has been making the custom graphical user interface and is most excited to see how the software system comes together.

Team Member 6
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Steven Paredeza

Major: Mechanical Engineering
Steven was born in the Philippines and now lives in Tucson, Arizona. Some of his favorite hobbies include hiking and camping as well as spending a lazy day watching anime. Through this project, Steven has been most excited to be able to produce amazing images of celestial objects.