By Hogan Chen

Thomas Ganley is currently studying for his BSC in Engineering Physics, Co-op, from the University of Alberta.

Thomas has been a part of AlbertaSat since October 2018, when he started volunteering for AlbertaSat by redesigning the website. Since then, he has obtained a certification of Proficiency in Amateur Radio by the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. With this certification, Thomas studied ultra high frequency (UHF) radio transmissions to develop parts of the communications subsystems of the Ex-Alta 2 satellite. Thomas has been a part of the Mission Design team for Ex-Alta 2 and has written software to interface the satellite’s onboard computer with the UHF and S-band communication systems and the ground station. Today, he is currently testing the software and the electrical interface of an engineering model of the UHF transceiver. The flight model of this transceiver will be installed into the Ex-Alta 2 satellite once these and the many other necessary tests for satellite assembly are completed.

Thomas is also the Deputy Software Team Lead, the Project Manager, and the Embedded Systems Developer for AlbertaSat. He has also focused his talents on flight scheduling. This entails the planning of the in-orbit activities for the Ex-Alta 2 satellite. His main goals include: understanding the new information in a short amount of time, getting the ground station working, testing the UHF transceiver, and acquiring as much knowledge as possible regarding the satellite’s communication methods. Finally, it is critical to pass his knowledge on to the next generation of students at AlbertaSat.

Thomas’s advice to new members is to “not get held-up in not understanding everything that is happening – there are a lot of components on the satellite, and it is hard not to get caught up in it. But give it time and stick with it.”