‘An amazing moment,’ says team leader as satellite built in Nova Scotia launches into orbit | 24CA News
After greater than 4 years of labor, a tiny satellite tv for pc made by college students with the Dalhousie Space Systems Lab has been launched into orbit.
LORIS, which stands for low-orbit reconnaissance imagery satellite tv for pc, was deployed by NASA in Houston on Thursday.
It was one in all dozens of satellites that have been a part of the Canadian CubeSat Project and the primary made in Atlantic Canada.
“It was just an amazing moment to see our work actually being, you know, put to orbit,” mentioned Arad Gharagozli, venture supervisor.
“It’s a very interesting feeling,” he mentioned. “I can’t really describe it. There is nothing like it to be perfectly honest because, I mean, not a lot of people get to experience this.”
LORIS’s important goal might be to check how totally different applied sciences like computer systems work whereas in area. The satellite tv for pc can also be geared up with cameras to take aerial photos of earth and Halifax particularly.
More than 300 college students with various kinds of experience labored on the gadget that is solely as massive as a shoebox, Gharagozli mentioned.
He says they constructed computer systems and different tools themselves earlier than sending the gadget to NASA.
“These are the things that traditionally are not part of the industry here in Nova Scotia or here in Atlantic Canada,” he mentioned.
“A lot of these technologies are now in a space and part of LORIS’s mission is to validate those designs and developments and hopefully we can improve on those designs down the road.”
Gharagozli says college students weren’t paid for his or her work, so for a lot of of them the satellite tv for pc was a ardour venture they lastly acquired to see fly into the sky.
“It’s not an easy project for people to just kind of do on the side,” he mentioned. “We had a lot of dedicated people who really spent their weekends [and] their evenings working on this.”
Information Morning – NS8:43Student scientists with Dalhousie Space Systems Lab launch a tiny satellite tv for pc into area
An thrilling begin to the brand new yr for pupil scientists within the Dalhousie Space Systems Lab. A shoebox-sized satellite tv for pc they have been constructing for greater than 4 years lastly launched into orbit. LORIS venture workforce lead Arad Gharagozli tells us the large goal behind this small satellite tv for pc.
Work has simply begun
As he watched the satellite tv for pc soar into area, Gharagozli says that is when he began to consider how the work has actually simply begun.
LORIS will go over Halifax three or 4 occasions a day because it orbits across the planet, he mentioned.
When it is closest, Gharagozli and his workforce will attempt to talk with the satellite tv for pc and acquire info.
They did not have a lot luck instantly following the launch, nevertheless. Gharagozli says he and his workforce stayed up for hours, making a number of unsuccessful makes an attempt to contact LORIS.
“The next phase is trying to troubleshoot and see where the issues are or how can we fix these?” he mentioned.
“Is there a problem on the ground? Is there a problem with this spacecraft? So, hopefully over the next three to four days we can figure out some of those issues and then have a clear contact with it.”
If all that goes effectively, Gharagozli says, they may be capable of begin analyzing the data the satellite tv for pc sends to them and even take some footage of Halifax from area.
