Name

RHOK-SAT

Satellite ID

GDGL-8515-2553-1728-8249

Temporary NORAD ID

99932

Followed NORAD ID

66907

Website

https://news.rhodes.edu/stories/cube-satellite-built-rhodes-college-team-set-launch-sept-14-part-nasa-mission

Country of Origin

United States of America

Launch Date

2025-09-14T22:11:00+00:00

Deploy Date

2025-12-02T08:20:00+00:00

The RHOK-SAT project began in 2019, when Dr. Charles W. Robertson Jr., who is a member of the Rhodes Class of 1965 and co-founder of NanoDrop Technologies Inc., initially encouraged Rhodes to develop a proposal to be submitted to NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, and he generously provided funding for the project. The initiative provides U.S. universities, high schools, and nonprofit organizations the opportunity to fly their miniature satellites aboard a rocket as a NASA-sponsored payload. Rhodes announced that its research proposal for RHOK-SAT was selected for NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative in the spring of 2021.

RHOK-SAT’s scientific mission is to test novel perovskite photovoltaic cells in the environment of space to determine if this type of cell material shows promise for future lunar and planetary missions. Perovskites have shown enhanced power production with or without direct sunlight when compared to traditional types of solar cells. The Rhodes team was responsible for designing the payload and top-level software of the satellite, while the University of Oklahoma team provided the experimental cells and analysis— ergo, the name RHOK-SAT.

The Rhodes team is led by physics professors Bentley Burnham (program director), Brent Hoffmeister and Ann Viano, and computer science professor Phil Kirlin. Students from various majors and class years have contributed to the design of RHOK-SAT.

The solar cells were fabricated at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO, under agreement with researchers in the material science department. The University of Oklahoma’s Photovoltaic Materials and Devices Group provided the Rhodes CubeSat with another solar cell, which has been standard use for many years, to compare known technology with the new perovskite cells.