UCCS BatSat 2.0 Selected for HASP 2026 Flight

The University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) BatSat 2.0 experiment has been provisionally accepted for flight on the 2026 High Altitude Student Platform (HASP), marking an exciting milestone for the 7-person student-led research team. HASP provides a unique near-space research environment using a high-altitude balloon platform, allowing student teams to fly scientific payloads to altitudes exceeding 35 km, well above most of Earth’s atmosphere and into a radiation environment relevant to space systems.

HASP BatSat 1.0 Flight (Red cube), Fall 2025

BatSat 2.0 is designed to investigate how near-space radiation affects battery lifetime and performance, a critical challenge for spacecraft ranging from CubeSats to planetary rovers. The payload conducts a controlled comparison between two identical, non-rechargeable batteries operating under the same electrical load: one exposed directly to the radiation environment and the other shielded inside an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) cube. Battery voltage decay and radiation levels are continuously recorded using an analog-to-digital converter and a Geiger counter, while onboard imaging provides positional context to correlate battery behavior with solar exposure.

Building on lessons learned from the earlier BatSat 1.0 mission (shown in the figure below), the redesigned experiment isolates radiation as the primary variable influencing battery degradation. UHMWPE was selected for its high hydrogen content, which makes it particularly effective at slowing and absorbing energetic charged particles, while remaining lightweight and easy to machine—key advantages for mass-constrained aerospace systems. Through HASP 2026, BatSat 2.0 aims to generate valuable flight data that will help improve energy storage reliability and shielding strategies for future space missions, while giving students hands-on experience in end-to-end spaceflight experimentation.

Submitted by Dr. Lynnane George, UCCS