Project Imua is a collaboration between four University of Hawaii Community College campuses; Kapiolani, Kauai, Honolulu, and Windward. It is funded by a two year grant which started in the Fall 2014 semester and was proposed as a way to establish a joint faculty-student enterprise for fabricating and testing payloads that will be launched by the Hawaii Space Flight Lab (HSFL). Project Imua is supported by the main Space Grant campus at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which provides technical assistance through HSFL’s resources and personnel.
This joint venture is similar to the Hawaiian concept of ahupua`a, a traditional subdivision of land from the mountain to the sea that relied upon the specialized skills of the communities residing along its span. Sustainability was achieved through the cooperation among its diverse labor force by sharing the products of their specialized practices. Similarly, each campus was tasked with honing in on a specific set of skills that are necessary to design, fabricate, and test spacecraft components.
This project is funded by a grant that allows the team to participate in the RockSat-X missions in 2015 and 2016. It is led by Project Manager Dr. Joseph Ciotti.
The main objectives of Project Imua are:
Objective 1: Student Training
To encourage UHCC undergraduates to explore and enter STEM-based careers by engaging in team-oriented rocketry projects that promote engineering-type problem-solving skills required to design, fabricate, assemble, test, and document launch-ready scientific payloads. Student stipends are available for UHCC students who are dedicated and willing to learn. Please contact outreach@hsfl.hawaii.edu for more information.
Objective 2: Institutional Development
This two-year project will serve to develop the specialized skills and strengths of each partner UHCC campus. The best practices gleaned from the involvement in RockSat-X will serve to integrate and galvanize this aspiring coalition of campuses into a functioning structure for developing and launching small satellite payloads, especially in collaboration with the Hawaii Space Flight Lab.
