A lot of work was accomplished in a very short time. Thanks to Hewlett Packard for PC board fabrication and providing many of the parts and tools for making both the electronics assembly, sensor housing and calibration fixtures. The Santa Rosa Junior College provided money for some expensive specialty components as well as testing facilities. The last four issues of QST have contained articles on P3D, describing the orbit and the 10 different frequency bands you can use to talk through the bird. However, there were a couple topics they didn't cover.
Most satellites spin while they are in orbit.
The gyroscopic effect helps to stabilize the bird's orientation. However, P3D will be three-axis stabilized. That allows the antennas to point at the earth while the solar cells always point toward the sun. That also makes thermal management a big issue, especially on a satellite this big. The Sun Sensor tells the IHU where the sun is, to help orient the spacecraft.