A group of aerospace engineering students from the MIT Space Telecommunications, Astronomy, and Radiation (STAR) Lab has developed a new CubeSat called DeMi. This nanosatellite is equipped with a small telescope, a laser test source, and a deformable mirror that is capable of producing crisp, high-definition images of distant stars and detecting exoplanets. The launch of DeMi is intended to exhibit the mirror’s ability to perform in space while also demonstrating the potential of nanosatellite technologies as an efficient and affordable instrument in searching for far-flung planets outside the solar system. DeMi was launched from Wallops Island, Va. via a small probe called the Antares rocket back in February 2020.
The team was able to monitor the nanosatellite through a ground station it set up on the roof of one of the campus buildings. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this station was specially designed to be run and operated remotely. The team’s receiver was able to detect the satellite’s signals around July 2020. Kerri Cahoy, an MIT aerospace engineer and the lead professor for the project, shared that the satellite had crossed over the university already.
“We thought it was another failed pass, but then we saw there were data packets received and we all got excited,” said Cahoy.
CubeSats were primarily used as hands-on design-and-build projects for students before they were ever actually launched into space. Along with members of AeroAstro and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Cahoy and her team were able to use the CubeSats designed by the students and transformed them into operational spacecraft.
“It was going to be another 30 years before we would see big, next-generation telescopes. This was something we could do faster, hands-on, and with students.”
According to Cahoy, it’s the student’s creativity and capacity to take risks that have made the CubeSat projects much more innovative and productive.
The team will be examining the data received from DeMi over the next year to observe whether the mirror was able to focus the images detected by the telescope. The STAR Lab will also be working on a new fleet of affordable technology demonstration nanosatellites designed for weather monitoring, space exploration, and enhancing communications.
For more news and information, visit http://starlab.mit.edu/.
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