Nigeria EduSat-1 was a Nigerian

nanosatellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...

built by the

Federal University of Technology Akure The Federal University of Technology Akure (informally FUT Akure or simply FUTA) is a federal government-owned university located in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. It was founded in 1981 under a drive by the government of Nigeria to create univers ...

(FUTA), created in conjunction with the Japanese

Birds-1 Birds-1 was the first iteration of a multinational program called the Joint Global Multi-Nations Birds Satellite project, or Birds project, to help countries build their first satellite. The Japanese Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) supp ...

program. It was Nigeria's first satellite built by a university. It was launched from the Japanese Kibō module of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

. The satellite deorbited on 13 May 2019.

Background

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

supports non-spacefaring countries in their efforts to build their first satellites through a program called the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite project (Birds). Five countries constructed satellites in the

program:

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; literal translation, lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia Mongolia–Russia border, to the north and China China–Mongolia border, to the s ...

, and

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

. Together, the five satellites make up the Birds-1 fleet. ''Nigeria EduSat-1'' is the first satellite built by a Nigerian university. The project was supported by

Kyushu Institute of Technology is one of the 87 national universities in Japan. Located in Fukuoka Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, it is dedicated to education and research in the fields of science and technology. It is earlier abbreviated to KIT and is now officially ab ...

(KIT) as part of the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite project, which is a cross-border interdisciplinary satellite project for non-spacefaring countries supported by

. The university also partnered with the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Abuja,

. The five satellites built by the five different countries were all identical in their design. Nigeria has a history with satellites in space. '' NigeriaSat-1'', '' NigeriaSat-2'', '' NigeriaSat-X'', ''

NigComSat-1 NigComSat-1 was a Nigerian communication satellite. The initial contract to build the satellite was signed in 2004. It was launched in China by Nasrda and became the third African geosynchronous communication satellite, when it was launched at ...

'', and '' NigComSat-1R'' were ordered by the Nigerian government, but were not built by Nigeria.

Development

The satellite was designed, built, and owned by the

(FUTA), in conjunction with Nigeria's National Space Research and Development Agency and Japan's

. It was equipped with 0.3

megapixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the sma ...

and 5 megapixel cameras, and with the rest of the satellite fleet took images of

. The satellite transmitted songs and poems as an outreach project to generate Nigerian interest in science. The signal could be received by

amateur radio operator An amateur radio operator is someone who uses equipment at an amateur radio station to engage in two-way personal communications with other amateur operators on radio frequencies assigned to the amateur radio service. Amateur radio operators hav ...

s. The

satellite constellation A satellite constellation is a group of artificial satellites working together as a system. Unlike a single satellite, a constellation can provide permanent global or near-global coverage, such that at any time everywhere on Earth at least one ...

also conducted measurements of the atmospheric density above the Earth. The satellite cost about US$500,000 to manufacture and launch.

Mission

Launch

The launch was planned for 1 June 2017, but was postponed due to poor weather conditions.

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

launched the satellite on its CRS-11 mission to the

on 3 June 2017. The satellite was carried in a

Dragon spacecraft American private space transportation company SpaceX has developed and produced several spacecraft named Dragon. The first family member, now referred to as Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the ISS between 2010 and 2020 before being retired. ...

on a

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pay ...

rocket, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center,

LC-39A Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, were first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle. Ty ...

. This was the 100th launch from LC-39A and the first time

reused one of its Dragon capsules. The satellite orbited the Earth at an altitude of and at an inclination of 51.64°. The satellite traveled around the Earth every 92.57 minutes at a velocity of .

Operations

The satellite communicated with seven

ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...

s: one in each of the countries participating in the Birds-1 program, and one each in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. The primary objective was for the satellite to be a technology demonstrator and to familiarize Nigerian students and scientists with satellite technology and manufacturing techniques. The

satellites decayed in May 2019. Nigeria EduSat-1 was the second-to-last to decay, ending its mission 13 May 2019.

References

External links

Official Birds website
{{Orbital launches in 2017 2017 in Nigeria Satellites orbiting Earth CubeSats Science and technology in Nigeria Federal University of Technology Akure Spacecraft launched in 2017 Student satellites Satellites deployed from the International Space Station Japan–Nigeria relations Spacecraft which reentered in 2019