Helen Reed, the new head of the Aerospace Engineering Department at Texas A&M University, is planning to have university students build and launch a satellite.

According to university newspaper The Battalion’s Dec. 10 online edition, the satellite program, named AggieSAT, is scheduled to begin January 1, 2005. The specific mission of AggieSAT was not immediately identified.

The paper also reported that Reed is looking to bring a multi-institutional collaboration, Mimic, to Texas A&M, aimed at building a satellite to measure the magnetic field of Mars. Likewise, it also wants to make the university the core institute for the project. Mimic is scheduled for a 2011 launch, the paper reported.