Pioneering space exploration
MILESTONE: CPUT is set to make history today with the launch of South Africa’s first nanosatellite, ZACUBE-1
Thursday, 21 November 2013
CPUT is set to make history today with the launch of South Africa’s first nanosatellite, ZACUBE-1.
The nanosatellite will be launched this morning from the Yasny Launch Base in Russia, on top of a RS-2OB Dnepr rocket.
This historic event will be witnessed by a delegation of government officials, members of local and international industry and CPUT staff and students via a live audio-feed at a launch ceremony on the Bellville Campus.
BESPOKE: ZACUBE-1 contains over 4 000 electronic components and will travel more than 6 billion kilometers into space before deorbiting
The university will also be awarded the official licence for ZACUBE-1 from the South African Council for Space Affairs, which administers the country’s national register of space assets.
ZACUBE-1, which measures 10x10x10cm and weighs 1.2kg, was designed built by 40 postgraduate students following the Satellite Systems Engineering Programme offered at the university’s French South African Institute of Technology (F’SATI).
Despite its size, this nanosatellite has a very serious mission - it will provide valuable space weather data to the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Space Science Directorate.
ZACUBE-1 contains one computer, several antennas, and 4,000 electronic components and runs on the same amount of power as a 3-watt bulb. It will orbit the earth up to 15 times a day and travel up to 6 billion kilometers before deorbiting.
The nanosatellite was sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology and CPUT and was built in collaboration with SANSA.
Written by Candes Keating
Email: keatingc@cput.ac.za
Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.
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