A small satellite built in Nova Scotia is ready to take off into space.
LORIS, meaning low-orbit reconnaissance satellite, is a nanosatellite designed and built by students in the Dalhousie University Space Systems Laboratory. It is 20 centimeters high and 10 centimeters wide and weighs just under two kilograms.
Project leader and space lab founder Arad Garagozli said it was a “surreal feeling” to see LORIS complete.
“Four years have passed that have really encapsulated everyone’s life to some extent,” he said.
“Obviously we are so excited and we can’t wait for him to send us the first signal.”
The work is funded by the Canadian Space Agency as part of its CubeSat project, which was announced in 2017. LORIS is one of 15 CubeSat being built in higher education institutions across the country, but is among the first to be completed.
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LORIS will go on a mission to supply the International Space Station, and once on board, the plan is to launch it into orbit sometime in November.
Its main mission is to test new technologies that have not yet seen the darkness of space.
A lot of research has gone into LORIS, everywhere from battery research to materials and software and mechanics research, so one of the things LORIS will do is transfer that research into space, and then we can see how it actually works. presents, “said Gharagozli, adding that it is also equipped with specialized cameras.
Gharagozli, who has since founded Galaxia, a space systems company in Halifax, said miniaturization is the new wave of space exploration.
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More than 250 students helped with the project – already a graduate of engineering Lucas Rowlands is working on the electronic energy system of LORIS for his project in the last year.
“For our project, we designed the deployment board, which is a wire-burning circuit that will cut the wires’ cables, which will then release the solar panels once they go into space,” Rowlands said.
He said that although he always knew that LORIS was intended for the stars, “it didn’t hit him at all” that he would soon fly into space.
“All the time you’re working on it, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s going into space.’ “But now that it’s done and we’re getting to the final stages of implementation, it’s exciting to know that it will be released and the things we’ve been working on and touching will be circling the Earth.”
Gharagozli, who has since founded Galaxia, a space systems company in Halifax, said miniaturization is the new wave of space exploration.
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“The ultimate goal is: how to make them as small and light as possible so that you don’t pay in advance for this experiment?” And nanosatellites can do this very efficiently and effectively, “he said, adding that LORIS is a perfect example of this.
That’s about (the size) of a liter of milk, so it’s not big, and that’s one of the things for nanosatellites, which makes it very attractive because the release price has dropped significantly, but it’s still somewhere between $ 40,000 and up to $ 40,000. $ 45,000 per pound to start.
He applauded the Canadian Space Agency for supporting the CubeSat project, which allowed him and his team to focus on technology development without worrying about finances.
“We really need Canada to be competitive in the global landscape when it comes to space exploration or Earth observation, so we hope that projects like this will continue, because without it it would be almost impossible to do things like this. private funding, “he said.
“The more we can do about it, the more we can learn and the more technology can come out of Canada, that again we desperately need to be competitive in this landscape right now.”
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