Tshepiso’s space mission
SPACE: Leon Steenkamp collects data at the F’SATI ground station as the nanosatellite passes over South Africa
Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Africa’s first nanosatellite, Tshepiso, has been in space for just over three months and engineers are now preparing for its main mission.
The nanosatellite, developed by F’SATI, carries a high-frequency radio beacon that will be used to study the propagation of radio waves through the ionosphere, providing valuable space weather data to the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Space Science Directorate.
F’SATI staff member Leon Steenkamp says the team of engineers are set to start the process of deploying the nanosatellite’s main antenna that is connected to the high-frequency radio beacon.
“For the past few weeks we have been gathering information in preparation for the mission. We are checking various things, from the temperature of the device to the battery voltage,” he says.
Since its launch in November, Steenkamp has been keeping a close eye on the nanosatellite and monitoring its daily activities from the F’SATI ground station on the Bellville Campus.
Tshepiso has been orbiting earth up to 15 times a day at an altitude of 600km. It also survived a strong solar storm earlier this year and has already transmitted images of South Africa which graced the pages of newspapers across the city.
PHOTOGRAPH: A picture taken by Tshepiso as it passed over South Africa
The nanosatellite was designed and built by 40 postgraduate students following the Satellite Systems Engineering Programme offered at F’SATI and was developed in collaboration with SANSA and with funding from the Department of Science and Technology, the National Research Foundation and CPUT.
Current postgraduate students are starting work on developing ZACUBE-2, a 3-unit CubeSat measuring 10x10x30 cm and weighing about 4kg.
ZACUBE-2 will be a continuation of the space weather experiment of the current ZACUBE-1(Tshepiso) mission.
For up-to-date information on Tshepiso’s activities, visit F'SATI's website.
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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