WUSAT Background

The WUSAT Programme has developed from a multi-disciplinary, 4th Year MEng project based in the School of Engineering, running since 2005 under the leadership of Dr Bill Crofts, and latterly also with Space Systems Engineer, Prof Julia Hunter-Anderson.

The multi-disciplinary structure of the School of Engineering (mechanical, electrical and electronic, systems, computer systems and manufacturing engineering, etc) has enabled teams to experience all elements of real-world hands-on educational space missions through the application of Space Systems Engineering Methodology as used by major Space prime contractors such as the European Space Agency.

WUSAT-2 - 1U CubeSat

An image of WUSAT-2 team members preparing the WUSAT-2 CubeSat for launch at the ESRANGE Space Centre, Sweden (2015)

Approach

We take a systems engineering driven approach to our Space mission developments to enable high quality outcomes and ensure a smooth handover to the next student team for multi-year projects.

Integral to our projects' success has been a wide collaboration with industry, with over 40 companies since 2005, providing finance, equipment, components, training, internships, software, and technical assistance. Find out more about our Partners, past and present.Link opens in a new window

Extensive outreach activitiesLink opens in a new window promote WUSAT, the School of Engineering, the University of Warwick, the European Space Agency (ESA), the UK Space Agency (UKSA), and our partner companies, whilst encouraging students of all ages to study STEM subjects. For example, our 4th Mission, WUSAT-3 (Wildlife Monitoring from Space) also engaged a wider audience (gardeners, ecologists, beekeepers etc!) in the use of Space to help solve real world problems.

We formed a WUSAT alumni group consisting of over 150 former WUSAT engineering students by 2025, many of whom are now working in industry/research at significant levels. Most of these former WUSAT engineers are featured in the specific missionsLink opens in a new window described in these pages. A very interesting sub-set of these former members can be seen in the WUSAT WomenLink opens in a new window presentation produced for the 2024 International Women in Engineering Day. We also collaborate with the Warwick Aerospace student societyLink opens in a new window (part of UKSEDS) to increase our outreach to non-engineering students and provide them the opportunity to support the WUSAT Programme - (see CanSat projectsLink opens in a new window in our Missions pages)

WUSAT was an active member of the Midlands Innovation Space GroupLink opens in a new window, formed in 2018. The group comprises a number of Midlands Universities with Space technology capability (Leicester, Warwick, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cranfield, Loughborough, Aston & Keele) and aims to build a strong Space research and development capability centred around the facilities of Space Park LeicesterLink opens in a new window.

Our highly inclusive approach with staff (particularly university technicians), students, other universities and a wide range of other organisations has been vital to our achievements of the past 20 years.