A small step for the NASAs of this world, perhaps, but South Africa just made a giant leap on its journey to becoming a global leader in space science with the launch of its first ‘nano-satellite’, TshepisoSat. The nano-satellite, codenamed ZACUBE-1, is the first of a miniature CubeSat design which was developed and constructed in the Western Cape, was strapped to an RS-20B Dnepr rocket in Russia this morning and flown up into orbit where it will collect data on space weather for scientists at the South African National Space Agency, SANSA.
Around 75 CubeSats developed overseas have been launched in the last 10 years, including several powered by Arduino controllers.
TshepisoSat weighs just 1.2Kg, and is about the size of a mantlepiece clock. It will orbit the Earth 15 times a day at an altitude of 600km. The signals that TshepisoSat sends back to the planet will be picked up at by a seven antennae array in Hermanus. The satellite itself will travel six billion kilometres during its lifetime, and uses the same amount of power as a 3W light bulb.
From the SANSA press release:
“This new satellite will enable data gathering on space weather for SANSA which is integral to the understanding and monitoring of solar activity during this period of solar maxima,” said SANSA CEO Dr Sandile Malinga, “This is a phenomenon that can have critical implications to the functionality of our technology and electrical power system on Earth as well as the operation of satellites.”
The CubeSat design was drawn up by a team of 40 post-grad students at the French South African Institute of Technology (F-SATI) in Bellville, part of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. It was part of a program to rapidly grow the country’s skillbase in space engineering. It seems safe to say that this is one particular STEM-education program that can be considered a success.
(Via News 24, Image CPUT)
