The inaugural launch of Ariane 6 is scheduled for 9 July 2024 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, after years of delay, according to what the European Space Agency (ESA) announced today. The ISTSat-1, Técnico’s first CubeSat and the first university satellite entirely developed and built in Portugal, will be aboard Ariane 6.

This nanosatellite will enter low orbit – 580 kilometres from Earth – and its scientific mission will be to certify whether the technology developed in this project, a new decoder for messages sent by aircraft, can be used to test the ability to detect the presence of aircraft in remote areas. The Técnico team will be receiving information from the satellite at the ground station, in Oeiras campus, and will verify, by comparing the data received with reference data, if the satellite meets the expected list of functions and performance.

Once in space, ISTSat-1 will be projected and will go its own way. After being launched and its position identified, it will send data to several ground stations involved in the project. It will remain in space for an expected useful time of 5 years and can stay in orbit for up to 15 years, until it burns up when it re-enters the atmosphere.

Entirely built by Técnico students and professors, except for the solar panels and the antenna for telemetry and remote control, this 10/10 cube – with 10 cm edges – internationally standardized unit size for these types of devices – explores the potential of nanotechnology in electronics and carries five boards. Most of them are what the platform refers to as avionics and must be present in all satellites. They all have a computer, one of them is the so-called satellite payload and the rest are part of the power platforms, including the on-board computer, the communications system and the board responsible for the mission.

It is estimated that around 50 people, including Técnico students and professors, mainly from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, have actively contributed to the project’s success and more than 20 master’s theses have been written.

The project is coordinated by Rui Rocha, a Técnico professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DEEC), a researcher at the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) and one of the founders of IST NanosatLab.

The project has gone through several stages of development, involving many hours of work since it began its journey in 2017 when it was one of the projects chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA).

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*The project had the financial support of Técnico, Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento (INESC-ID), Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), and the Mechanical Engineering Institute (IDMEC). A team of researchers at the Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR-Lisboa) and several companies linked to the sector also participated in the project.

More information: “110 Histórias | 110 Objetos” Podcast – Episode 34: ISTSAT-1, the first Portuguese CubeSat | Satellite made entirely at Técnico to hitch ride on Ariane 6 in summer 2024 | Técnico prepares to put the first Portuguese university satellite into orbit