The launch is scheduled for October and will be carried out by Spacex. The data will be analyzed in the classroom with Aerospace Engineering students.

The launch of the Prometeu 1 satellite is scheduled for October, work carried out by students on the Aerospace Engineering course at the University of Minho. This ´PocketQube`, like the size of a rubik’s cube, will be open source.

The launch will be carried out by SpaceX and will take place in California. The person responsible for the project, Alexandre Ferreira da Silva, warns of possible delays that they consider normal in this type of situation, pointing out that by the end of the year, Prometheus 1 will continue towards space.

The work project by the consortium led by UMinho included the collaboration of Carnegie Mellon University, in the USA, which produced the initial platform, and Instituto Superior Técnico, which provided information about ISTsat-1, launched in July. The work is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the order of 100 thousand euros.

The idea of ​​building a satellite emerged three years ago. In an interview with UMinho I&D, Alexandre Ferreira da Silva talks about the opportunity to “bring space into the classroom”.

From the ground, it will be possible to evaluate the temperature, axis accelerations and possible errors in the Prometheus 1 software. Asked what it means to be an open source satellite, the person in charge adds that “any interest, institution or group can replicate the model” , as all documentation and files are available online.

This small device measuring just five centimeters on a side is equipped with battery management systems, perception of orientation towards the Earth, microcontrollers and a camera similar to a telephone to try to capture some images during the approximately seven years that it will be in orbit.

In addition to participating in the process of validating the Prometeu 1 platform, students will have the opportunity, in different curricular units, to use the satellite as a “case study” and learn how to collect the data it collects. Another of the contents covered will be the equipment licensing process.

At the University of Minho there is an expectation to complement the launch of the satellite with the development of a terrestrial communications station at the Aerospace Center that the Chamber of Guimarães announced for the Fábrica do Arquinho.

– YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW WITH UMINHO I&D IN ITS ENTIRETY HERE –