UNB grad students build New Brunswick's first satellite: Violet

Alex DiTommasoof Fredericton and Ben Wedemire of Edmonton grewup on opposite ends of the country, with a common dream of someday exploring space.

Nowa small satellite, which is the size of a loaf of bread, is a big step toward making that dream a reality.

These two graduate students at the University of New Brunswick are part of a 50 person team working on the province's first cube satellite, which will be launched from the International Space Station in early 2022.

"It's literally New Brunswick's first satellite," DiTommasosaid. "Completely built and designed in New Brunswick and it is going to space."

The CubeSat Project is a partnership with the Canadian Space Agency that gives post-secondary institutions the opportunity to "engage their students in a real space mission."

In New Brunswick, students from UNB, Universit de Moncton and NBCC Saint John are working on the satellite. Itwill explore the outer layer of the Earth's atmosphere,which is known as the ionosphere.

'It's everything that isn't here'

Growing up in New Brunswick, DiTommasosaid there weren't many opportunities to work in the space industry, so being able to stay at home and build this satellite with the Canadian Space Agency has been a huge opportunity.

While his ultimate goal is to go to space himself, he sees this as the first step.

"It's everything that isn't here," DiTommasosaid. "It's so vast, it's so unexplored, it's the next step in humanity's exploration and we've got to go get it."

Wedemireshares that passion, which for him started when he was a child going to the local planetarium with his father, and looking at the planets through a telescope.

"I have this vivid picture in my mind of a card that was given to me that had Uranus on it and it was the most beautiful thing I ever sawI was kind of hooked at that point."

The mission

The satellite, Violet, is named for New Brunswick's provincial flower.

Once it's launched, it will orbit the Earth every 96 minutes at a speed of seven kilometres per second.

Its mission will be to gather GPS data and to take pictures with its "imager" of the outer layer of the Earth's atmosphere.

"It's the top of the Earth's atmosphere. It's the highest you can go and it's still considered atmosphere," DiTommasosaid.

"We want the imager to be basically parallel to the surface of the Earth because we want to picture the tip of the Earth's atmosphere, the very edge of it and that's called the airglow layer, where all the science is happening."

Wedemiresaid there isn't a lot knownabout the ionosphere, how it changes, and how it impacts the communication between satellites and Earth.

DiTommasosaid the goal is to "paint a picture of the dynamic environment that is the ionosphere."

"Understanding how those [satellite] signals interact with the ionosphere and how they get to Earth is really important in this new age of connectivity across the world."

Attitude control

DiTommaso's main focus is the "attitude control" of the satellite.

"That's how we point the imager where we want it to point in space," he said.

Since the small satellite, which will weigh just 3.6 kilograms,won't have rocket thrusters to direct it, Violet will use the Earth's magnetic field, and magnets, to navigate while in orbit.

"What that will do is allow us to basically orient the satellite how we want to in space by using the Earth's magnetic field to our advantage."

While New Brunswick's satellite's mission is to gather more information about the ionosphere, DiTommasoand Wedemire say other provinces are building satellites with very different goals.

For instance in Prince Edward Island, a satellite named SpudNik1is being built.

"They're specifically looking at potato farms so they're specifically pointing an imager at P.E.I. and trying to take pictures of P.E.I."

Launch countdown

Many of the students now working on Violet are planning to travel to California in early 2022 for the launch of their satellite from the International Space Station.

DiTommasoexplains it will go into a "deployer" at the Space Station.

"The astronauts will load that out of the airlock, the robotic arm will grab it and the satellites will basically be pushed out by these actuated springs and then float out in space," said DiTommaso.

It's expected to have a life span of between one and two years, and deliver pictures and GPS data back to New Brunswick every day.

Both students say the best part has been talking to others, especially children, about their project and what is possible in the space industry.

"They get a little sparkle in their eyes any time you bring up space," DiTommasosaid of the kids he has met.

"And also working with the Canadian Space Agencyit's been such an amazing opportunity just bringing it to New Brunswick."