UVic ECOSat team gets satellite ready for launch

A team of University of Victoria engineering students has won a Canada-wide satellite design competition and are now moving forward with the next step: to get it flight-ready for its launch into orbit to conduct scientific research.

UVic’s ECOSat team was one of six teams competing at the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC), held at the Canadian Space Agency’s David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa.

At about the size of a shoe box, the “P-Pod” falls into the smallest category of satellite, called a nanosatellite. When launched, it will pass over “ground control” at UVic four or five times a day, allowing researchers to conduct a number of experiments. Launch is still at least a year or two away but the team is busy making refinements and preparing to build the communications centre that will be in the Engineering Lab Wing at UVic.

Today, the media are invited to meet some members of the ECOSat team, who will give a show and tell of their winning entry. They will also talk about what the future holds for the project.

What: Meet members of UVic’s satellite design team and faculty advisor Dr. Afzal Suleman, professor of Aerospace Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Center for Aerospace Research at the University of Victoria.
When: Monday, June 23 from 11 a.m. to noon.
Where: Meet at UVic’s Engineering Office Wing main lobby to be escorted to the lab.

**Please RSVP to Suzanne Ahearne

ECOSat is a University of Victoria club where undergrad and graduate student team members gain hands-on experience working on a nanosatellite for the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge. ECOSat has partnered with A.G.O. Environmental Electronics Ltd to create a scientific payload studying diamagnetic materials

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