The first Estonian satellite, known as ESTCube-1, was launch into orbit on 7 May 2013. It was designed mainly by students from the University of Tartu over a period of 5 years. It takes images and radios them back to Earth but the Satellite also serves a scientific purpose. It is outfitted with a solar sail that can be deployed to affect the satellites speed.
This satellite is a nanosatellite and was designed following the CubeSat standard which basically says the satellite has to have a volume of no more than a litre and can weight no more than 1.33 kgs. Several of these cubic nanosatellites can be placed into orbit during a single launch mission making it incredibly cost effective.
No comments:
Post a Comment