Beyond Borders: Canadian Universities Celebrate CubeSat Integration for National Project
These satellites were the fourth and final batch of Canadian CubeSats built for the Canadian CubeSat Project (CCP), a national initiative providing professors in post-secondary institutions with an opportunity to engage their students in a real space mission. Selected teams of professors and students – across every province – were offered the unique opportunity to design and build their own CubeSat, a miniature satellite, and launch it into space.
For three days, Voyager’s Exploration team conducted an integration of the three satellites, Killick-1, QMSat, and VIOLET into our CubeSat Deployer for NRCSD Mission #27, to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on SpX-30, planned for early March 2024.
Killick-1 was built by the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Newfoundland and Labrador. It contains a scientific payload for the measurement of GNSS Reflectometry (GNSS-R) signals, a newfound means of remote sensing the ocean. With a primary mission of measuring sea ice parameters from space, Killick-1’s payload will also work to develop innovative GNSS-R applications to provide important inputs to weather and climate models. The Killick-1 research team will focus on providing enhanced knowledge on Canada’s oceans, and climate change impacts.
Built by the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec, QMSat aims to demonstrate a new type of device to measure magnetic fields in space. The magnetometer uses quantum effects associated with nitrogen vacancies in a small diamond. QMSat will be one of the first experimental demonstrations of a quantum measurement in space, with the goal of proving that the Sherbrooke-developed quantum technology can take accurate measurements. Earth’s magnetic field protects the planet from charged particles emitted by the Sun and is essential to life. QMSat will measure Earth’s magnetic field, with the goal of better understanding where it comes from and how it’s changing.
CubeSat New Brunswick researchers and students designed and assembled the CubeSat VIOLET, named after the New Brunswick provincial flower. VIOLET will gather telemetry data from its custom-designed photovoltaic (PV) panels, transmitting this data to the CubeSat New Brunswick ground station at the University of New Brunswick Fredericton campus. Gathering orbital dynamics telemetry information will assist future modelling in active attitude control system development. VIOLET will also test these custom-designed PV panels in space and aid with the assessment of Test Readiness Level (TRL) for future space applications.
The Voyager Exploration team was honored to present a flown deployer panel to Lisa Campbell, President of the Canadian Space Agency, to celebrate this milestone. The panel was flown on SPX-27 and was signed by Lisa and all of the Canadian CubeSat student teams.
