UM’s student-built nanosatellite in orbit
ROBUSTA 1B, the University of Montpellier’s second nanosatellite, which launched on Friday, June 23, at 5:69 a.m. (Paris time) from the Shriharikota spaceport in India aboard a PSLV rocket, showed no signs of malfunction 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, recharged its batteries… After several passes over Montpellier, the nanosatellite is now fully operational and will be able 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-centimeter-edged CubeSat during their internships and thesis work.
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 data sets, and amateur radio operators around the world are also sending the data they have collected to the space center. The data received pertains to the health of the nanosatellite and the experiment on board. Analysis of the scientific data from the ROBUSTA 1B mission will continue in the coming months. ROBUSTA 1B’s mission is to validate a radiation testing standard and a new communication bus.
With support from CNES, as part of its JANUS program (Young People Learning to Build Nanosatellites at Universities and Institutions of Higher Education), 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 University of Montpellier’s new state-of-the-art Space Center building, constructed with strong support from the Occitanie Region.
This building brings together students, researchers, and industry partners, as well as AxlR (a technology transfer acceleration company) and the regional incubator LRI. It features mechanical and electronics workshops, a concurrent engineering room for system design, 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, approximately 50 students worked on this nanosatellite over a four-year period, from 2012 to 2015, under the guidance of faculty members and in collaboration with industry professionals and CNES engineers,” explains Laurent Dusseau, director of the University Space Center. “What makes this project unique is that they developed everything from scratch, mastering the entire technology. From design through environmental testing, they have acquired skills sought after by the industry and are now ready for employment.” This success reinforces the University of Montpellier’s commitment to this new type of training based on a project-based approach, within the framework of a long-term partnership—led by its Van Allen Foundation—with stakeholders in the socio-economic sector.