The Emirati satellite "DhabiSat" reaches its orbital position

 

The Khalifa University of Science and Technology announced today, Wednesday, the arrival of the miniature satellite "DhabiSat" to its orbital position via the Cygnus space supply vehicle of the Northrop Grumman Company.

In a statement, the Executive Vice President of the University, Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, confirmed that the arrival of the satellite into space represents another achievement in the record of Khalifa University and the UAE.

Al Hammadi said: "There is another mini-satellite that we plan to build in the future, and with the UAE consolidating its position as a global power in the field of space, we look forward to preparing more scientific cadres and human capital, especially in the space science sector, in cooperation with our partners in various academic and industrial sectors."

For his part, Northrop Grumman Vice President and General Manager of Tactical Space Systems, Frank DiMauro, a technical advisor and mentor for students in the Abu DhabiSat team, said: "The company is looking to achieve research results in controlling the direction of the miniature satellite, which will be carried out via satellites. He explained that "the launch of (DubaiSat) and other miniature satellites highlights the importance and ability of the Cygnus space supply vehicle to carry out tasks that go beyond the limits of supplying the International Space Stations."

Abu DhabiSat will evaluate and validate the accuracy of various steering control strategies and subsystems by capturing images using an onboard digital camera pointing in specific directions.

The new position control algorithms and subsystems will improve the accuracy and response time of the miniature satellites to changes in situations, compared to traditional algorithms. If successful, these algorithms can then be used as the basis for future mini-satellite missions.

"DubaiSat" is the second miniature satellite designed and built by Khalifa University students, and the moon smoothly entered its orbit after leaving the International Space Station.

The main task of "DubaiSat" is to enable students to design, implement and test software models for the control mode and sub-systems. The satellite was built at the Yahsat Space Lab of the Khalifa University Center for Space Technology and Innovation.