[caption id="attachment_123373" align="alignleft" width="212"] Nayif-1 [/caption] SHARJAH — The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and the American University of Sharjah (AUS) have announced the successful launch of Nayif-1, the UAE's first nanosatellite launched into outer space. Nayif-1 takes on added importance as an educational project launched by MBRSC in cooperation with AUS with the goal of providing hands-on experience to Emirati engineering students on designing, building, testing and operating nanosatellites. The launch of Nayif-1 was a step towards implementing one of the most important space projects, the ‘Mars 2117 Project'. Nayif-1's mission includes but is not limited to sending and receiving text messages on amateur radio frequencies. The project has several other scientific objectives, including characterizing and validating the accuracy of a thermal model of Nayif-1 with in-situ temperature measurements in space, as well as determining the evolution of the solar cells performance in space during the mission design life. The nanosatellite was launched on-board a PSLV-C37 rocket, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. On-board its rocket, this launch held around 104 satellites, making it historically the highest number of satellites to be launched together. Nayif-1 was the 5th satellite separated from the launch vehicle after the main payload. The ground station, located at the AUS, received the first signal from Nayif-1 18 minutes and 32 seconds after it reached its orbit. A team of engineers from MBRSC, the students who participated in the project, as well as MBRSC's knowledge transfer partners, Innovative Solutions in Space, were present at the ground station during launch and early operations. Nayif-1 will be operated and controlled from the ground station at AUS moving forward. Dr. Bjorn Kjerfve, Chancellor of AUS, said: "AUS is an institution dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in academia and research. The successful launch of Nayif-1 is a reflection of that vision and a proud moment for AUS, considering the important part played in its development by seven Emirati students from AUS. The nanosatellite will be monitored by the ground station based at AUS. We are very pleased to have developed this project with MBRSC and look forward to future collaborations that will advance the skills and knowledge of AUS Emirati engineers in space technologies." Dr. Kjerfve added "we are proud of our students' role in the development of the satellite and their participation in completing all the phases of the space program. This is a living example of our strategy to move towards a knowledge-based economy, to promote innovation in the region, and serve the post-oil needs of the GCC." , Eng. Fatma Lootah, Deputy Project Manager of Nayif-1 at MBRSC, said: "Through the ground station at AUS, we will continue to monitor the satellite to understand how it responds to commands in the daytime and in the evening; however it will be shifted later on to the autonomous mode. We will also verify the active control system board in Nayif-1, which determines the satellite's direction and maintains its balance, especially as this is the first time this board has been used in a 1U nanosatellite (10*10*10cm)." Nayif-1 was launched into a sun synchronous orbit with dimensions of 10x10x11.35 cm3 and a weight of 1.32 kg, the CubeSat will produce a communication footprint of 5,000 km. The milestone phases of the project, which took around a year and a half, were carried out at MBRSC under the supervision of its team of engineers and specialists.
