Technology made in IEEC in the UCAnFly nanosatellite, a finalist in ESA’s “Fly Your Satellite!” programme

2019-12-11 00:00:00

The nanosatellite UCAnFly, from the Superior School of Engineering (ESI) of the University of Cadiz, has managed to sneak into the finalists of the “Fly Your Satellite!” programme of the European Space Agency (ESA).

UCAnFly is an educational nanosatellite to test emerging technologies for gravitational wave space detectors, such as the LISA mission. The aim of ESA's programme is to bring space science and technology closer to universities through the development and launch of a nanosatellite.

The UCAnFly team is led by researcher Ignacio Mateos Martín, a former Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) doctoral candidate. Among others, the team has the external collaboration of members of IEEC at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC). For their project, the UCAnFly team opted for the OnBoard-Computer solution developed at IEEC for the CubeSats. This solution is also included in the 4DCube project, a project that became third winner of the “Call to Orbit” competition organized by Open COsmos and the Business Applications section of ESA.

Within a highly competitive call between European and Canadian universities, the UCAnFly nanosatellite was selected by ESA's panel of experts to participate in the final phase of the programme, which was held yesterday at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. There, UCAnFly developers defended the proposal, which will conclude this week with the announcement of the winning teams.

Good luck to the UCAnFly team!