Lift off for pioneering space programme aiming to boost UK skills and graduate opportunities

Southampton students are to design and launch a satellite mission as part of an ambitious new programme.

The Joint Universities Programme for In-Orbit Training, Education and Research, known as JUPITER, will equip students with hands-on space industry experience and training for their future careers.

The programme is collaboration between the University of Southampton and Portsmouth and Surrey universities together with Space South Central .

Its inaugural project will see engineering and physics students from all three universities design, build and test their own Earth observation payload for a satellite mission.

They will also be involved with its launch and, once in orbit, conduct mission operations.

University of Southampton student Alejandro Parra Pintado, age 22, developed the software that drives data handling between the payload and satellite computer system.

He said: "It’s been a really rewarding experience, and the project has greatly expanded my engineering knowledge while working on a real satellite that will be launched into space.

"We've learnt a lot about the engineering that goes into spacecraft development and I am sure this insight will launch my future career in aerospace engineering.

"Knowing that my work is going to blast off into space to collect data about our planet and help uncover the mysteries of dark matter is thrilling.”

The satellite, Jovian-1, will be around the size of a large shoe box and feature the payload designed, built, tested and delivered by students from the three universities.

It will take images and videos of the Earth and attempt to use a space-facing camera to look for space debris.

It will also feature elements of a future dark matter experiment undertaken by Southampton students, taking a first step in demonstrating the suitability of their hardware and concept for use in space.

Professor Hendrik Ulbricht , from the University of Southampton, said: “This is a great opportunity for us to conduct a long-dreamed-of experiment in space.

“We have the unique chance to do a fundamental physics experiment and directly test for low-mass dark matter in space with our levitated mechanical sensors, which are at an early stage of development and will aid our research in the future.”

Read more at www.spacesouthcentral.com .