TUMnanoSAT was a

nanosatellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...

and the first

artificial satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisoto ...

made by

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnist ...

. It was built by the

Technical University of Moldova The Technical University of Moldova (UTM; ro, Universitatea Tehnică a Moldovei) is a higher technical educational institution located in Chișinău, Moldova, and is the only such institute in the country to be accredited by the state. Histor ...

(UTM) and was launched on 15 July 2022.

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pa ...

rocket carried TUMnanoSAT to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

(ISS). This was through the

SpaceX CRS-25 SpaceX CRS-25, also known as SpX-25, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission (CRS) to the International Space Station (ISS) that was launched on 15 July 2022. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX using their reusable sp ...

Commercial Resupply Service mission. In this mission, Falcon 9 carried a

SpaceX Dragon 2 Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, primarily for flights to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has also launched private missions such as I ...

spacecraft which contained the J-SSOD launch capsule of the

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

(JAXA) within which in turn was TUMnanoSAT. The satellite project and its launch was carried out in cooperation with the JAXA and the

United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is an office of the U.N. Secretariat that promotes and facilitates peaceful international cooperation in outer space. It works to establish or strengthen the legal and regulatory framew ...

(UNOOSA) as part of the KiboCUBE program. Once brought to the ISS, TUMnanoSAT was put into orbit from there on 12 August. The main missions of TUMnanoSAT were to achieve an efficient communications system between the satellite and its

ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves f ...

, to study the reliability of

electronic component An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are n ...

s when exposed to

space radiation Health threats from cosmic rays are the dangers posed by cosmic rays to astronauts on interplanetary missions or any missions that venture through the Van-Allen Belts or outside the Earth's magnetosphere. They are one of the greatest barriers ...

, to test the satellite's system for supply of

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic ef ...

to find out the most appropriate form of distributing the accumulated energy and to observe the behavior of the satellite's

nanosensor Nanosensors are nanoscale devices that measure physical quantities and convert these to signals that can be detected and analyzed. There are several ways proposed today to make nanosensors; these include top-down lithography, bottom-up assembly, ...

s and micro-wires in open space and of the sensors of the satellite's subsystem to determine and optimize the performance of the satellite. After the launch of TUMnanoSAT on 15 July, the UTM and

Moldcell Moldcell is a Moldovan mobile network operator and is a subsidiary of Nepalese company CG Corp Global. It works in GSM, UMTS and LTE standards. General information Moldcell is a mobile telecommunications operator in Republic of Moldova, part ...

organized a public lecture dedicated to the satellite's fabrication and mission attended by several children and adolescents to introduce them to the fields of innovation and technology. TUMnanoSAT reentered the atmosphere on 31 January 2023.

References

External links

* of the TUMnanoSAT project {{Orbital launches in 2022 Spacecraft launched in 2022 Spacecraft which reentered in 2023 2022 in Moldova Satellites of Moldova Nanosatellites First artificial satellites of a country Japan–Moldova relations