UM student nanosatellite in orbit
ROBUSTA 1B, the second nanosatellite from the University of Montpellier, which took off on Friday, June 23, at 5:69 a.m. (Paris time) from the Shriharikota base in India aboard a PSLV launcher, showed all signs of functioning properly during tests completed yesterday.
Developed by the Montpellier-Nîmes University Space Center with support from CNES and the Van Allen Foundation at the University of Montpellier, it successfully transmitted and received data and recharged its batteries. After several passes over Montpellier, the nanosatellite is now 100% operational and ready to continue its mission. This moment was eagerly awaited by the fifty or so students from Montpellier and Nîmes who contributed to the development of this 10 cm CubeSat during their internships and theses.
The first signals were picked up by colleagues in Russia, South Africa, and Germany before the nanosatellite passed over Montpellier at noon on Friday. Since then, the ground station at the University of Montpellier has received more than 50 sets of data, and amateur radio operators around the world are also sending the data they have collected to the space center. The data received relates to the health of the nanosatellite and the experiment on board. The scientific data from the ROBUSTA 1B mission will continue to be processed over the coming months. ROBUSTA 1B's mission is to validate a radiation testing standard and a new communication bus.
Supported by CNES, as part of its JANUS student project support program (Young People Learning to Build Nanosatellites in Universities and Higher Education Institutions), students fromthe IUT of Nîmes,the IUT of Montpellier-Sète, the Faculty of Sciences, and the Polytech engineering school are developing nanosatellites from start to finish. They are placed in a professional environment within the new state-of-the-art building at the University of Montpellier Space Center, built thanks to the strong support of the Occitanie Region.
This building brings together students, researchers, and industrialists, as well as AxlR (a technology transfer acceleration company) and the regional incubator LRI. It has mechanical and electronic workshops, a concurrent engineering room for designing systems, a clean room for assembly, and a control room for communicating with the nanosatellite in space.
"Thanks to the support of the Van Allen Foundation, which funds numerous student internships, around 50 students worked on this nanosatellite for four years, from 2012 to 2015, supervised by academics and interacting with industry professionals and engineers from CNES,"explains Laurent Dusseau, director of the University Space Center. "What makes this project unique is that they developed everything from A to Z, mastering the entire technology. From design to environmental testing, they acquired skills that are in high demand in the profession and are now ready for employment." This success reinforces the University of Montpellier's commitment to this new type of project-based training, as part of a long-term partnership, supported by its Van Allen Foundation, with players from the socio-economic world.