Connecting business and academia, the pioneering programme will also help address the UK space sector’s growing demand for specialist skills, and demonstrate the impact of regional space clusters to boost innovation and growth as part of the National Space Strategy. In addition to its university relationships, Space South Central also represents more than 170 space-related businesses across Hampshire, Surrey and the Isle of Wight.
For JUPITER’s inaugural project, engineering and physics students from all three universities will design, build and test their own Earth observation payload for a satellite mission, be involved with its launch and, once in orbit, conduct mission operations from the University of Surrey’s ground station at Surrey Space Centre.
The satellite – Jovian-1 – will be around the size of a large shoe box and feature:
- The payload designed, built, tested and delivered by students from the three universities which will take images and videos of the Earth and attempt to use a space-facing camera to look for space debris
- A FUNcube provided by AMSAT-UK, a communications payload which makes access to radio signals and data from the satellite possible using basic equipment, for schools, colleges and wider outreach
- Elements of a future Dark Matter experiment being undertaken by the University of Southampton, taking a significant first step in demonstrating the suitability of their hardware and concept for use in space
- A space radiation monitor from the University of Surrey to better understand space weather at the coming solar maximum and its effects on satellites. Space weather caused the impressive aurorae visible across much of the globe in May this year but can also pose risks to critical space infrastructure
- An innovative Tiny Machine Learning payload, led by the University of Portsmouth’s world-leading data-intensive research institute, the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, will be designed to work with all the other payloads. This will maximise the value of information sent to Earth from space and spearhead public outreach on the importance of space data and AI in all our lives.
The student team, with members from undergraduate to PhD level, has already started work, led by University of Surrey PhD student, Ieuan Carney.
He said:“This project is a great opportunity for students to get hands-on with real space engineering, allowing us to further develop skills from our degrees. As the student team lead, I’m already seeing progress in the students’ ability to not only identify potential design challenges, but also in how they’re improving their designs to overcome potential problems. We’re incredibly grateful for this opportunity to advance our skills as spacecraft engineers.”
