•Notícia

href="https://saladepremsa2.upc.edu/en"" target="_blank">Department of Electronic Engineering, the NanoSat Lab was set up to achieve educational, scientific and service objectives. Unlike other laboratories working in this area, it offers companies and institutions the possibility of qualifying components for space flight use.

Small satellites also offer economic advantages. They require a much smaller investment—a nanosatellite can cost between two hundred and two hundred and fifty thousand euros, far less than a conventional satellite—and they can be placed in orbit as part of the payload of other launch vehicles. As a result, such systems open the door to less costly space projects, such as the ones being carried out by the NanoSat Lab.

One of the technologies that will be tested on the ³Cat-1 is a graphene transistor developed by Prof. Max Lemme of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm (Sweden). Transistors, currently made of silicon, are found in most commonly used electronic devices. The KTH group is working on graphene transistors for application in space technologies. The experiment carried out on ³Cat-1 will directly test the behaviour of graphene in space conditions.

Tests will also be carried out to analyse the effect of highly charged energy particles. A commercial Geiger counter (an instrument for measuring radioactive particles and ionising radiation) will be used for the study. The same counter will also measure the impact of radiation on other experiments conducted on board the nanosatellite.

Testing will also be done on polymers commonly used in electronic components, and on solar cells designed to perform well in space, developed by Pablo Ortega, a lecturer in the Department of Electronic Engineering.

In another experiment, developed by lecturers Manuel Domínguez and Joan Pons and doctoral student Sergi Gorreta, a resonant microelectromechanical system (MEMS) will be used to monitor, for the first time in situ, how singlet oxygen attacks a polymer, a subject of interest in electronic applications. Singlet oxygen is highly reactive and is present in low-altitude orbits.

Testing will also be done on a new system for harvesting environmental energy available in the NanoSat Lab. The technology takes advantage of the temperature difference between the interior and exterior of the small satellite (between 5 and 10 °C). The aim is to produce a perpetual supply of energy that will continue to feed the telecommunications beacon used to identify the ³Cat-1, even after the tiny device has reached the end of its useful life.

Another experiment will focus on the operation of a technology developed for wireless transmission of power in space. The technology is the subject of a doctoral thesis being developed by Elisenda Bou, who is working on the project at the ETSETB and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. Wireless energy transmission makes it possible to distribute electrical energy without any material support. The technology could be applied in home devices, such as mobile phones and TVs, or in the Internet of Things.

The research being conducted by Elisenda Bou (funded by Thales Alenia Space España) is based on the use of modular satellites: sets of specialised modules that are linked to form a single satellite. Testing needs to be carried out to determine how the plasma present in space affects such satellites and whether or not the wireless power link degrades.

Two years ago the ETSETB decided to make nanosatellites the star topic in Advanced Engineering Projects, a course in which students work in groups to carry out a specific, complex project. Nanosatellites, which are small in volume (approximately 10 cm³) and weigh less than a kilogram, can be developed by students working in groups.

A nanosatellite is a complex system and working on this project draws on all of the subjects covered in telecommunications and electronic engineering programmes. It is therefore an ideal educational platform for students to put what they have learned about space technologies into practice. Over the last two years, the use of nanosatellites has been extended to scientific and communications functions, leading to a democratisation of access to space.

The design of the ³Cat-1, which ETSETB students made significant progress on last year, is based on modules that can be used in future generations of the small satellite. In fact, work is already under way on a second version, the ³Cat-2, which is the subject of a doctoral thesis by Hugo Carreño. The cross-section of the new version is about size of a sheet of paper (20 x 30 cm) and it is 10 cm high. The new device will carry payloads that focus on remote sensing using GPS signals of opportunity reflected from the sea surface.

Undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students, along with other lecturers and research staff at the UPC and other research centres, have also been involved in designing the ³Cat-1 and developing the advanced technology it will carry.

After two years of operation, the NanoSat Lab has developed into a facility that is currently being used by some thirty people and is open to students and the scientific community. Since last March, it also provides services for small and medium-sized enterprises and institutions or groups that wish to launch small satellites into space. As its directors point out, the NanoSat Lab is one of the few European installations (outside Barcelona, the closest ones are in Madrid and Tolosa) that has the equipment needed to qualify components intended to be placed in orbit, both technologically and in terms of relevant standards. Such components, generally of commercial origin and designed to have a useful life on Earth, must be able to withstand vibrations produced during launch and the effects of extreme thermal cycles and ionising particles (solar radiation).