Students are designing navigation and control systems to orient a satellite in space. They use a robot that hovers on a cushion of air to control it on two axes. (Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative + Brand)

Engineering students at the University of Cincinnati are building tiny custom CubeSat satellites to test the radiation shielding properties of carbon fiber material and take high-resolution photos of the Great Lakes from space.

LEOPARDsat-1 will record how much radiation from space seeps through different thicknesses of carbon-polyethylene samples. HABsat1 relies on an internal flywheel system in which motor-driven spinning flywheels can orient a satellite on three axes.