Delfi-C³ is a

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

satellite constructed by students at the

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

in the Netherlands. It is a 3-unit CubeSat, and was launched at 03:53:42 on 28 April 2008, as part of the NLS-4 mission, aboard a

PSLV The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite ...

rocket, from the Second Launch Pad at the

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Satish Dhawan Space Centre – SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range – SHAR) is the primary spaceport of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh. The spaceport is located on an isl ...

in India. The launch was contracted by

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister o ...

, through Antrix Corporation and UTIAS. The satellite's primary mission is technology demonstration and development. It is carrying new types of

solar cells A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

, a solar sensor for TNO Science and Industry, and a high-efficiency amateur radio

transceiver In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. The ...

experiment. Delfi-C³ does not contain batteries, as the experiments are dependent on the sun. She is the fourth Dutch Satellite, after ANS,

IRAS The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Infrarood Astronomische Satelliet'') (IRAS) was the first space telescope to perform a astronomical survey, survey of the entire night sky at infrared wavelengths. Launched on 25 Janu ...

and SLOSHSAT. It is the first Dutch university Satellite and is based on a 3-Unit

. Some other mission characteristics include: * No active attitude control * 1200Bd BPSK VHF downlink * Linear transponder The Delfi-C³

ground segment A ground segment consists of all the ground-based elements of a spaceflight, space system used by operators and support personnel, as opposed to the Satellite space segment, space segment and user segment. The ground segment enables management of ...

consists of two command ground stations, the primary being in Delft and the backup station at the TU Eindhoven in Eindhoven. For data collection, a distributed ground station network (DGSN) is used in which radio amateurs receive packets and sent these via internet to the central data collection server. Data decoding is possible with the fre
RASCAL
software provided by the Delfi-C3 team. The Delfi-C was still largely operational when it was followed up by the

Delfi-n3Xt Delfi-n3Xt is a Dutch nanosatellite which is operated by Delft University of Technology. It was launched on 21 November 2013. It is a three-unit CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass ...

on October 21, 2013. In May 2008, the amateur radio payload on the satellite was designated Delfi-C3 OSCAR-64 or Dutch OSCAR-64 (DO-64). The cubesat decayed from orbit on 13 November 2023.

References

{{Use British English, date=January 2014 Student satellites Spacecraft launched in 2008 CubeSats Satellites of the Netherlands Amateur radio satellites Delft University of Technology

See also

References