Recently, the "Yixian-A" satellite, independently developed by a student team from Sun Yat-sen University, was successfully launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, sparking widespread discussion online. Meanwhile, in Sichuan, another group of post-2000s students is quietly building satellites.

In 2017, Sichuan University established the undergraduate-led "Tiange Team," dedicated to constructing an "all-sky gamma-ray monitoring network" using microsatellites. "Put simply, we aim to launch a constellation of small, low-cost satellites into space to detect gamma-ray bursts," explained Qiu Yehao, the team's student leader. Now in its ninth iteration, the team currently focuses primarily on "ground testing". "Although it's a bit disappointing that our satellite won't be launched, scientific research doesn't always yield immediate results. What matters most is that the process has taught us diligence and the pursuit of knowledge through investigation," he said.

The Satellite That Won't Go to Space

"Previously launched satellites include Tianning-01, Tianning-02, Tiange-10b, and Tiange-11b," Qiu Yehao recounted last December at the School of Physics laboratory at Sichuan University, listing past achievements. In his hand was a small golden cube reflecting light: "It doesn't have a name yet—it's strictly speaking just a detector." This ground verification platform, developed over more than a year by the ninth-generation team, is responsible for critical tests including system integration, environmental simulation, and payload-specific validation. Although it will never reach orbit, the experiments are conducted with full rigor: nine members are divided into experimental, data, and simulation groups, following their predecessors' methodology to complete all tests, and the platform will be transferred to Nanjing University in April 2025 for continued ground-based experimentation.

A Group of Post-2000s 'Star Chasers'

The "Tiange Project" lab spans less than ten square meters but connects to the vast cosmos through computer screens. "Here, we can track the trajectories of satellites in orbit," said Qiu Yehao, a nuclear engineering student, pointing to a screen. When asked whether he was particularly interested in gamma-ray bursts, he admitted frankly, "I mainly work on engineering—I don't know much about astronomy." His junior, Yuan Yuyang, held a different view: "The 'Tiange Project' has deepened my fascination with astrophysics. The cosmic imagery I saw as a child in documentaries and novels now feels tangible, and I plan to pursue further studies in this field."

There are also tedious moments. To test the detector's response under varying temperatures, Qiu Yehao once spent an entire day monitoring a thermal vacuum chamber: "I repeated the same procedure over a hundred times, but pushing through made it all worthwhile." Simulation team members Xu Rongzhen and Hou Qinxiang learned the true meaning of collaboration: "We must embrace the mindset that 'success does not have to bear my name, but my contribution is indispensable to success.'".

【本文部分内容由AI辅助生成，特此声明。The author(s) generated part of the content in this work with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), which is hereby declared.】