Concordia Finds Its Place in Space
Space Concordia is one step closer to boldly going where no other university in the province has gone before.
“We could be the first Quebec University to reach out to space,” said Nicholas Sweet, a representative for the club.
While the group has been developing the project for almost a year, they just recently settled on a mission for their satellite, which will be to study the Van Allen radiation belt, a circle of plasma that surrounds the Earth.
More specifically, the goal of the satellite will be to map South Atlantic anomaly, an area near the coast of Brazil. It is the location where the Van Allen belts comes the closest to the surface of the Earth, causing anomalies and forcing satellites to shut down when they go through the area.
Last December, the group of about 30 students entered into the Canadian Satellite Design challenge sponsored by “space mission and education consulting” company Geocentrix. The company will act as a customer to the universities enrolled into their challenge. It will also work as an intermediate to allow the winning universities to get a launch for their satellites.
Concordia Professor Scott Gleason claimed that Geocentrix’s goal in sponsoring the CSDC is to give universities a real spacecraft experience.
“Geocentrics wants to train students in the life cycle of a satellite. They’ll have to go through the same deal NASA goes through,” said Gleason.
The students embarking into the CSDS will go through a similar sketching process and the same presentation process engineers at NASA or Canadian Space Agency go through.
The project requires a substantial budget, though it will be moderate by NASA satellite standards.
“You can take a lot more risks with those cube satellites,” said Gleason.
“You are forced to use things that aren’t really designed [to be used in] but still work for space. Universities take outrageous risks and it’s a good thing.”
“You are forced to use things that aren’t really designed [to be used in] but still work for space. Universities take outrageous risks and it’s a good thing.”
Due to low budgets, universities are forced to use materials that did not necessarily go through thorough testing. It allows them to test materials in space environment and to contribute to research as well.
“It’s been easier to find sponsors for things like donating equipment. Sponsors are more likely to give help in hardware than money,” said Gleason.
Even if Concordia does not get a launch from Geocentrix, the fact that there is a satellite being built is already great, Gleason continued.
“Eventually we’ll get a launch. Launches are going to start becoming cheaper and more available.”
