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IRELAND’S FIRST SATELLITE is set to be developed after a team of Irish based researchers got the go-ahead from the European Space Agency.
The Education Irish Research Satellite 1 will be launched from the International Space Station and orbit the Earth for a year – if strict tests and reviews are passed.
The project was selected by the ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! (FYS) programme which aims to “inspire, engage and better prepare university students for a more effective introduction to their future professions in the space sector”.
Students at University College Dublin and Queens University Belfast are building the space craft with the assistance of academics.
Lorraine Hanlon / TwitterDon't quite know how to say this, but WE'RE GOING TO BUILD A SATELLITE - #EIRSAT-1 selected by @esa for #FlyYourSatellite @ucdscience pic.twitter.com/riY2zYpTwj
— Lorraine Hanlon (@LorraineHanlon1) May 13, 2017
The small shoebox sized CubeSat will be designed and tested over the coming months.
If launched, the space craft will be managed from a ground station at UCD. It aims to test experiment with thermal coatings for spacecraft and gather data on gamma ray bursts.
David Murphy / Twitter@ucddublin and @QueensUBelfast students will take #EIRSAT-1 to the next step, a real satellite doing gamma-ray science in low earth orbit! pic.twitter.com/8nCWZ2M8G3
— David Murphy (@jaaaaam) May 15, 2017
Five Irish based companies are providing help with the project.
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Does this finally mean I can get eFibre in Tuam ?
@Geraldine McKenna: no but it sounds like space gets a bit of unnecessary debris
@Geraldine McKenna: Not sure about that, lol, we’re still waiting for wimax to upgrade the Tuam mast!! Abbeyknockmoy not powerful enough to serve those of us north of Tuam.
There is certainly enough space debris. This satellite is the size of a shoe box. Can you imagine the irony of a US astronaut working on a mutiny billion space station during a space walk and getting hit on the back of the head by a shoe box with a big shamrock emblem ?
@Geraldine McKenna: Comment of the week from Geraldine!
Gemma Ray bursts! Is that when Mrs Ray is having a bad day?
Poor old Johnny Ray Sounded sad upon the radio
School for Advanced studies Cosmic Physics in Dublin sent a payload up on a satalite via the space shuttle 1970s and in 1980s it was brought back down and contrabuted to Cosmic ray detection and research the LDEF https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Duration_Exposure_Facility
It will probably be piloted by Nicky Byrne Gay Byrne and Leo the lad
@john g mcgrath: and fuelled by turf
@john g mcgrath: Hopefully it won’t be a reusable shuttle. Send them off into orbit for good!!!
I’d advise everyone to stay indoors.
Do the lads from Queens University think of this as a British satellite i wonder? ;-)
@Fred Jensen: Last time I checked Belfast was in Ireland whereas Britain is a different island.
@eastsmer #IRExit: The term countryside is a geographical term so when you cross the border going North you are in the British countryside, return across the border and you are in the Irish countryside. What doesn’t exist is the ‘British Isles’ even though academics refuse to accept what is effectively basic reasoning.
Gemma Rays? And, will it be painted green?
@Matthew Kaufman: Orange on one side green on the other, with a white streak in between. Great collaborative initiative.
Go Gemma Ray! Sure she’s a grand lass :D
Spudnick v2
Ah s@@t now the tinfoil hats will definitely be needed.
Only a matter if time before TV3 buys it out in a fire sale and rebrands it to More 3.
Can’t help thinking the money this is using up could be better spent on combating disease or improving crop pest resistance, both of which would serve humanity better than the small group of acknowledged bright students on this project.
@Gerry Carroll: This is science. Out of all the things to pick a budgeting fight with, you choose science?
Are you aware of the advances in human health care and technology that were either propelled by, or uncovered by the various space programmes in the past?
@Malachi: like the non-stick pan? Great value for money. We have people dying (literally) waiting to get a trolley in hospitals and people sleeping rough with no homes. THOSE are far more worthy of funding than some university dean’s ego project.
@Gerry Carroll:
The International Space Station is a unique laboratory for performing investigations that affect human health. The space station has supported research that is providing a better understanding of certain aspects of human health, such as aging, trauma, disease and the environment. Several biological and human physiological investigations have yielded important results, incl improved understanding of basic physiological processes normally masked by gravity and development of new medical technology and protocols driven by the need to support astronaut health. Advances in disease models, psychological stress response systems, nutrition, cell behaviour and environmental health are just a few examples of benefits that have been gained from the unique space station environment.
I heard the Cavan man in charge says he’s going to power it by wind turbines !!
Can they put good auld Seanie Fitz on it?
Hahahahaha if NASA “not another stupid assumption” isn’t bad enough the Gov will waste millions on a piece of shit to send to a swimming pool at NASA then to send the stupid Irish public are sent CGI images of it floating in space wow absolutely brillaint meanwhile on the streets of every town and city there’s folk sleeping on streets not enough money to pay for food or electricity but it’s cool the taxpayers money will be spent on yet another waste of money. How this can be celebrated is beyond me.
@Colin Miley: after electronic voting machines, eircode and water meters this stuff is an innovative if not surprising new way to waste taxpayers money. Sort out what’s wrong on the ground, not in earth orbit.
Moonraker comes to mind now? lol.
It will be the first satellite built with blue string!
have your say