One of the really great things about being in the space industry is the level of collaboration it takes to get a project literally off the ground.

Let me take you through the project that is just now orbiting the Earth: MYSAT1. MYSAT1 is a little nano-satellite with the simple mission objectives of being a tool for education, taking a picture of the UAE, and testing a home-grown experimental battery in space. The satellite is so small, it measures in at 10cmx10cmx10cm. It’s quite tiny for something that has been put on a rocket and chucked out at an altitude of about 450km.

Here’s how small it is:

What you see up there is an engineering model (what we call: an EM) that is identical to the actual flight hardware (or flight model) that is now orbiting the Earth. The picture up there shows it with two of its solar panels not in place, but I think the idea is clear. The cube-shape of the spacecraft makes this a “CubeSat,” a standard of nano-satellites that measure in at 10x10x10cm (or 1U). You can stack multiple CubeSats on top of each other as your mission becomes more complex and developers around the world have become more interested in stacking them to achieve more complex mission objectives. In fact, the currently in development MYSAT2 is a 2U CubeSat (measuring in at 10cmx10cmx20cm).

CubeSats are great little things because they allow you to test new technologies without the risk of putting that new technology on a larger multi-hundred-million-dollar satellite and instead you get to see a technology’s performance on something that costs less than 1% of the cost and effort. CubeSats are also excellent educational tools. The value you get from working on an actual CubeSat is far greater than if you just studied the theory of space and the theory of orbital mechanics and so on.

In no other project can you bring together so many disciplines under one program. In CubeSats, you have orbital mechanics (physics), an electrical power system (electrical engineering), an on-board computer (computer engineering, computer science, and electronics engineering), an antenna and transmitter/receiver (electrical engineering and signals analysis), and with more complex CubeSats, you can have propulsion on-board, which means you’d also need experience in propulsion systems and materials (chemical engineering). All of this is held together by a structure that needs to be carefully thought out and designed (mechanical engineering)and resistant to the hazards of space environment. And since all these systems depend on each other so crucially, these projects bring together all kinds of disciplines who all need to understand a little bit about each other while also having a deep understanding of their crucial role in the success of the program.

Shameless plug begin. The program in question is a Concentration in Space Systems and Technology that is offered with a Master’s Degrees at Khalifa University (previously Masdar Institute). This concentration is great in that students must take part in the design, assembly, integration, test, and launch of a nano-satellite. It’s arguably the best program available to aspiring engineers here in the UAE and gives students access to some state-of-the-art facilities available at the Yahsat Space Lab. Shameless plug over.

The days have been long trying to wrap our heads around how the satellite is doing exactly. Trying to receive signals and communicate with it is still something we are coming to grips with as a team but this is the exciting thing about space. You plan, you plan, you plan, you plan, and you plan some more. But once it’s real, you’re just never ready.

Being personally involved in now two completed and launched CubeSats is an honor for me and the journey has taught me a lot and has brought me around full-circle from first being a student working to benefit the sponsor to now working with the sponsor to benefit the students. MYSAT1 was just deployed into its orbit, giving our program so much weight and experience for future successes and I am very proud of the team and the work that was done.