Space Technologies at Cal (STAC) - Spring 2021 Fundraising

Hello! STAC would like to thank you for your generous support during our Spring 2021 campaign and would like to say that we are back and better than ever with another crowdfunding campaign. We would love to have your support again during our current 2026 campaign!

What We've Accomplished since 2021

Thanks to your support, we have made a lot of progress since 2021. Here are some highlights:

• Approaching Flight Milestones: We are preparing for two major launches this year! We have worked hard over the past few years, and now QubeSat, which will qualify a quantum gyroscope in low-Earth orbit, and TIME II (The Interstellar Microgravity Experiment), which will evaluate antibiotic resistance in microgravity, are launching this upcoming spring!

• New Projects: We expanded our project line-up with Biopharm, developing space bioengineering solutions to safeguard astronaut health, and Lunar Hopper, designing a jumping robot to traverse extreme lunar terrain.

• Ideation & External Growth: With two projects launching soon, we established a dedicated ideation team to come up with new ideas for STAC to pursue! We also launched our External Partnerships Committee last year, which connects with corporate sponsors, hosts guest speakers and workshops, and helps our members get recruited for internships and full-time positions.

Why We’re Fundraising Again

To bring our projects across the finish line and continue developing our other projects, we have launched our 2026 Crowdfunding Campaign. Reaching our campaign goal directly funds:

• Manufacturing & Hardware ($1,500): Makerspace access, flight-grade materials, and avionics to survive launch and harsh space environments.

• BSL-2 Wet Lab Access & Bio Supplies ($750): Specialized facility rental, bacterial strains, and reagents essential for the biological payloads on TIME II and Biopharm.

• STEM Community Outreach ($250): Hands-on engineering workshops and mentorship events for local students.

Every dollar raised goes straight to mission-critical hardware, wet lab resources, and professional development! We would be deeply grateful if you would consider renewing your support or sharing our campaign with your network. No amount is too small or too great!

Donate to the 2026 STAC Crowdfunding Campaign!

Thank you,

STAC (Space Technologies at Cal)

STAC is very pleased to announce that our Quantum CubeSat (QubeSat) has been selected by NASA for the CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). This will allow our QubeSat to be launched as an auxiliary payload on a mission by NASA, another U.S. government agency, or by industry between 2021 and 2023. NASA’s CSLI will fully fund the launch of QubeSat and provides a low-cost pathway for conducting technology demonstrations in space.

The QubeSat project is one of eighteen accepted proposals that were submitted by NASA Institutes, research organizations, and universities. CubeSats are built in multiples of standard 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm (1U) units and are a primary way of democratizing space through providing an accessible method of in-space testing and development.

QubeSat Exploded View (Source: STAC)

The QubeSat project’s primary goal is to research the effects of space environments on quantum gyroscopes, a groundbreaking experimental sensor based on nitrogen vacancies (NV-) centers in diamonds. In comparison to more traditional onboard micromechanical gyroscopes, quantum gyroscopes provide improved resolution, improved drift stability and increased temperature operational range. QubeSat’s upcoming mission will allow us to evaluate the effect of the harsh space environment — including extreme temperatures, radiation, and magnetic field variation — that could affect the gyroscopes’s performance in small-scale spaceflight.

QubeSat’s secondary goal is to increase the accessibility of space and to inspire STEM education. Increasing accessibility to space starts at UC Berkeley and the STAC community, which is a group of over 60 passionate students who are working on a range of technologies aimed at making strides in space research. The QubeSat team and the larger STAC community hope to introduce high school and college students to our work though community outreach in the East Bay, giving them the support and inspiration to pursue microsatellite projects and careers in the burgeoning NewSpace era.

Here is a link to the NASA announcement: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-announces-next-round-of-candidates-for-cubesat-space-missions