Known as Iris, this satellite was designed to study how space conditions affect the composition of asteroids and the moon
It will help researchers better understand these effects when studying meteorites.
Instead of collecting space rocks, Iris will bring tiny samples back to the great expanse they came from.
Cameras placed in Iris, where the rocks are attached, will capture images and send them back to the team at Space Technology and Advanced Research Laboratory (STARLab).
A communications station with a large antenna is installed on the roof of the University’s Information Technology and Engineering Complex to enable communication with Iris.
Philip Ferguson, associate professor in the University of Manitoba’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, is proud of this significant advance.
The latter is also the founder of STARLab.
“We’ve built satellites here at the University of Manitoba before, but we’ve never launched one. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. We are very excited. »
— A quote from Philip Ferguson, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Manitoba
STARLab students led the project in collaboration with York University in Toronto, the University of Winnipeg, the Interlake School Division in Manitoba and Magellan Aerospace.
Iris satellite systems engineer Ali Barari is also proud of this project.
We designed and built it from scratch. We made it. We put everything together, he says. It’s so exciting… like a father seeing his baby.
It took about two years and about $20,000 to design and build Iris, which is Manitoba’s contribution to the Canadian Space Agency’s CubeSat project.
Launched in 2018, the CubeSat project offers higher education institutions across provinces the opportunity to engage their students in a real space mission by designing, building and launching their own miniature satellites.
The student teams then operate their satellites and conduct missions.
With information from Darren Bernhardt