The government of Jordan is set to launch its first ever locally manufactured satellite the JY1-SAT. The Cubesat (a mini satellite for space research) was built by a multidisciplinary team of 19 students, consultants and faculty members at the Nanotechnology Institute at the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) with full support from the Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah II.
The satellite will carry a 435/145 MHz amateur radio linear transponder along with a Slow-Scan Digital Video system which will be used to broadcast clips of various local tourist attractions internationally.
The CubeSat which is a miniature version of a satellite has been set up to promote research and experimentation among university students in Jordan. It also aims to facilitate wireless communication with stations worldwide.
The Jordan Times reported that, a team of 16 university students has been constructing the 1U CubeSat, supervised by a group of experts and academics through weekly meetings at the Royal Jordanian Radio Amateurs Society (RJRAS). RJRAS members Nart Tahamouqa, JY5IB, and Rafiq Farmawi, JY4CI, serve as advisers to the project. Also part of the JY1SAT team is an ambitious 24-year-old Zeid Kawar, whose 2-month internship at NASA’s Ames Research Center inspired his interest in developing his country’s first nanosatellite.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince visited the Nanotechnology institute where he took part in the completion phase of the satellite. His foundation also extended support to develop the satellite by collaborating with the Innovative Solutions In Space and the AMSAT Radio Amateur Societies of the UK and the Netherlands. The Royal Jordanian Amateur Society heavily supported the mission by providing the necessary HAM Radio expertise and tools.
Jordan’s long cherished dream of designing and building their first artificial satellite became a reality due to its endorsement from Prince Hussein’s foundation, which was created to foster space research and satellite engineering under the STEM study (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) cohort among Jordanian universities. The project also runs an internship program for students at The Ames Research Centre hosted by NASA. The JY1-SAT satellite is the first encounter of the Jordanian government in the space race and is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2018. It is hoped that the project will help spur an interest in space research and technology and nurture the next generation of young Jordanians interested in space exploration.
References
http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/jy1-sat.htm
http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/crown-prince-puts-final-touch-mini-satellite-project
https://amsat-uk.org/2017/10/24/jordans-first-satellite-jy1-sat/
http://www.arrl.org/news/jordan-s-first-cubesat-set-for-early-2018-launch
Image taken from: https://www.isispace.nl/jordans-first-satellite-jy1-sat/
