ESTCube-1 gives up the ghost

Photo: Henri Kuuste/ESTCube-1 meeskond

Yesterday spelled end to Estonia’s first ever and successful student satellite mission ESTCube-1. The device, flung into space two years back, has hereby quit working.

«Today [yesterday – edit] we checked the satellite’s energy capacity situation during the communication session and it was obvious this would be the day it stops working,» said initiator and instructor of the programme Mart Noorma, Associate Professor at University of Tartu and space technology department head at Tartu Observatory. «We had been waiting for that since February.»

It was on February 17^th – three months ago – that the satellite, having circled the Earth’s for a year and nine months, officially «retired».

«February was the completion of the scientific mission, but now is the moment when the solar panels can’t charge the batteries any more so the satellite is no longer functional,» explained Prof Noorma.

Gradually, the satellite will be descending till it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere in about 20 years. «From now on, it’s just a memorial to a successful mission by Estonian students,» observed the professor.

Prof Noorma said the next major space technology project will be participation in building a satellite for European Space Agency (ESA) student programme ESEO, to be sent into space as early as 2016.  

As instructed by Tartu Observatory scientists, students at University of Tartu and Estonian University of Life Sciences are building the camera system for ESEO mission, directly based on ESTCube-1 experience.

These past two years, the students/scientists have been busy securing that ESTCube-1 is succeeded by ESTCube-2.