Project Proposal
DescriptionThe UT Austin FASTRAC team has engaged our group to develop a new web strategy for their grant-based, nanosatellite program. The FASTRAC team, a group of Aerospace, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering students, is demonstrating their ability to build two flight-ready nanosatellites using a new plasma microthruster technology being developed at UT. The program, currently in its second year, originated from a two-year grant awarded to only 12 schools nationwide by the US Air Force Office of Space Research (AFOSR).
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 3-D Image of 2 Nanosatellites |
- Program Promotion
Promoting the FASTRAC program to the press, aerospace companies, and sponsors - Community Outreach
Efforts to educate the Austin community (mainly teachers and students) through teaching about FASTRAC's research - Intra-team Collaboration
The use of automated tasks to streamline document management by the FASTRAC team members - Extra-team Collaboration
Exposing web functionality to specific external communities to support tracking nanosatellites after launch
Secondary goals of the web site redesign include:
- Easy maintenance of the new public and private sites, complete with templates, documentation and well-commented code.
- Easy transition of contents from the private site into the public site after the January competition.
Our efforts will be focused on designing those features that are directly
tied to the FASTRAC mission and include both a public and private site. Note,
however, that the FASTRAC web presence will continue to support their program
after the January competition and additional features will be needed to satisfy
new audiences—upload capabilities for radio operators and ground station
scheduling capabilities for other universities, for example. While these features
and audiences are not our main goal, we will also be providing front-end representations
of how the features might behave for those that relate to the FASTRAC mission.
2. Scope
For a detailed view of the scope and short-term change in the Web site, see the chart below. Pre-operational refers to the site before the end of the competition and post-operational to the site after the end of the competition.
3. Schedule
See project timeline.
4. Group Member Roles
We have established the following roles for the completion of this project.
- Communications Coordinator
Facilitates team communication through e-mail, blog, and face-to-face meetings. Acts as the point-of-contact for the client. - Project Web Site Coordinator
Maintains and updates the Project Web Site with new project information and deliverables. - Technology Coordinator
Leads assessment of existing technology resources and facilitates implementation of new technologies. - Content Coordinator
Leads organization and analysis of existing content and coordinates the creation of new content.
As we move through the project stages, we will rotate roles (see table) and
may redefine the focus of each role. (Please see the project
timeline for the dates for each phase.) During each phase, we will equally
share project responsibilities such as interface designer, coder, database
designer, etc.
| Planning | Analysis | Design | Construction | Client Acceptance | |
| Communications Coordinator | Alex | Alex | Mariela | Rachael | Tammy |
| Project Web Site Coordinator | Mariela | Mariela | Rachael | Tammy | Alex |
| Technology Coordinator | Rachael | Rachael | Tammy | Alex | Mariela |
| Content Coordinator | Tammy | Tammy | Alex | Mariela | Rachael |
5. Project Expectations
Client Interaction:
- The Web site project team will build a design partnership with the FASTRAC team through frequent consultations, on-time deliverables, maintaining an up-to-date project Web site, and soliciting feedback during each stage of the process.
- The FASTRAC team will provide all Web site content and will allow the Web site team access to the hosting Web server.
Critical Success Factors:
The FASTRAC Web site will support the mission objectives of the FASTRAC project by:
- educating students and the general public,
- effectively promoting the FASTRAC project,
- enabling better management of project documentation and easier updating of Web site content, and
- allowing students and amateur radio operators to actively participate in the project after launch.
6. Development Methods & Deliverables
We will use the timeline section of the project Web site to track our progress through each stage of the development process. Within each stage, tasks will be determined and assigned to individual team members, client deliverables will be produced, and client feedback will be solicited. The development stages, goals, and deliverables are as follows:
| Stage | Goals | Deliverables |
| Planning Sept 20-24 |
Meet with client. |
Proposal |
| Analysis Sept. 27-Oct. 8 |
Analyze content & technology resources. |
User/Task Matrix |
| Design Oct. 11-29 |
Develop Web site & database design. |
Labels & Naming Rules |
| Construction Nov. 1-12 |
Build Web site & database. |
Documentation |
| Acceptance Testing Nov. 15-19 |
Demonstrate completed Web site to client. |
Demonstration |