A group of New Brunswick university students is one step closer to launching a mini-satellite into space.
Satellite Violet is named after New Brunswick’s provincial flower and is about the size of a loaf of bread. It successfully passed the testing phase at the Canadian Space Agency in Montreal and is headed to the International Space Station early next year.
Once the satellite is deployed from the space station into Earth’s orbit, the group will be able to perform scientific experiments to study the planet’s upper atmosphere and weather by capturing GPS signals and tracking Violet’s movements.
More than 300 people, including 274 students, have been involved in building the satellite since 2018, according to Brent Petersen, a professor in the UNB department of electrical and computer engineering.
“Once Violet is in space, the only way you can communicate with it is through radio,” said Petersen.
UNB professor Brent Petersen says the mini-satellite project was funded by the Canadian Space Agency and with a grant from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. (Submitted by Brent Petersen)
“Between now and May we have a lot of work to do, to get our ground station and communication ready.”
A 17-foot antenna is assembled on the roof of UNB’s Gillin Hall, and the team is working toward getting their ground station running.
The ground station is a control room in Gillin Hall where the team will interact with Violet via radio signals. The room is connected to the roof antenna through wires and has computers and radio equipment to administer their experiments.
A small piece of New Brunswick is set to orbit Earth
A mini-satellite, created by a group that includes more than 200 UNB students, will be launched as part of a project by the Canadian Space Agency.
Students from different engineering departments at the Université de Moncton and the New Brunswick Community College in Saint John also worked on Violet, said Peterson.
UNB is responsible for the controlling and communication phase of the satellite, meaning that they will conduct the experiments and troubleshoot any software or technical challenges, he said.
“The team that was here is the anchor of the relay race, and they brought Violet over the finish line.”
The mini-satellite project was coached and funded by the Canadian Space Agency at a cost of about $200,000, and another $200,000 was granted by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, Petersen said.
The satellite is small, about the size of a loaf of bread. It has an aluminum frame measuring 10 x 10 x 20 centimetres, several circuit boards and solar panels. (Submitted by the Canadian Space Agency)
Violet is one among many satellites taking part in the Canadian CubeSat project, he said, which aims to train post- secondary students in “how to design, build, test, launch and operate a mission from space,” said Tony Pellerin, director of engineering capacity development at the Canadian Space Agency.
‘Seems like our baby’
Noah Lydon has been the mechanical lead for the last seven months of Violet’s development.
Currently in his third year of engineering at UNB, Lydon said he “wanted to do something practical” using his favourite subjects — math and physics — and building a cube satellite felt perfect.
Noah Lydon was the mechanical lead for Violet and ensured that its hardware was space-ready. (Rhythm Rathi/CBC)
He worked on Violet’s hardware in the final stages and had to pick up from where former students left off, which was challenging.
“I feel like I have a big role in this project,” Lydon said.
This antenna will oscillate once it begins to communicate with Violet. (Rhythm Rathi/CBC)
“I had to make all the different parts work together, so sometimes parts didn’t fit exactly how they were supposed to, so we had to kind of redesign a bit and just make everything work and fit into the satellite.”
Lydon said he was happy to see his first satellite ace all the testing at the space agency. He and his teammates had the opportunity to place it in the deployer — a box that will sit in the rocket carrying Violet to the space station.
“It was definitely experience of a lifetime.”
“Seems like our baby, so saying goodbye to it was definitely a bit emotional but it’s all good because that’s what we wanted,” he said.
The satellite has an aluminum frame measuring 10 x 10 x 20 centimetres, several circuit boards, some solar panels and will take about 90 minutes to complete one trip around the Earth.
Beginning in 2022, 11 CubeSats have been launched. Pellerin said Violet, along with two other satellites, will be the last batch entering space, concluding the space agency’s project and bringing the total number of Canadian mini-satellites orbiting around Earth to 14.
The space agency will deliver Violet to NASA in a box, then a Falcon 9 rocket will take the box to the International Space Station on March 4, he said.
An astronaut from the space station will then launch the final three mini-satellites into orbit in May.
The satellite can survive from three to 24 months, orbiting Earth at a speed of eight kilometres per second, according to the team.
Violet will disintegrate into the atmosphere after finishing its mission.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
