PROMETHEUS-1, the new Portuguese satellite developed by the University of Minho and launched on January 14th, will collect data for educational purposes. Rui Rocha, a researcher at the Institute of Telecommunications and former professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Rodrigo Ventura, a professor at the DEEC and researcher at the Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR Lisbon), are involved in the project.

The experience gained with ISTSat-1 was crucial for the project – with few Portuguese assets in space, this is still a process that is not well-oiled and extremely time-consuming.

Rodrigo Ventura, Professor at DEEC and Researcher at ISR

The satellite, shaped like a cube with five-centimeter edges and weighing 250 grams, contains battery management and orientation systems, microcontrollers, and a camera similar to that of a mobile phone to capture images.

For the launch, communication management was handled from a ground station installed at the Taguspark campus in Oeiras, developed by the NanoSat Lab — a Técnico initiative involving various research units and supported by companies linked to the aerospace sector. Técnico also plays a key role in supporting the licensing of communications.

The space object was developed under the CMU Portugal Program, a partnership involving Técnico, Carnegie Mellon University (USA), the University of Minho, and other higher education institutions, with funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology.

News: Técnico