UWE-1 (Universität Würzburg's Experimentalsatellit-1) was one of three
CubeSat
A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSat ...
s built by students of the
University of Würzburg
The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one o ...
, launched on 27 October 2005 as part of the
European Space Agency
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
, orbiting
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...
in a circular orbit. The cube-shaped satellite weighs about 1 kg and has an edge length of 10 cm, which corresponds to the CubeSat standard.
Mission
The primary mission of UWE-1 was to conduct telecommunication experiments. Among other things, it was about the data transmission on the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
under space conditions: It was necessary to adapt the common Internet protocols to the difficult conditions in space environment on Earth, the transport of data on the Web works very reliable, but in space can increasingly delays and disruptions occur. Furthermore, UWE-1 also served as a test laboratory for highly efficient
solar cell
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.
Downlink/uplink frequency was 437.505 MHz, modulation was 9600
baud
In telecommunication and electronics, baud (; symbol: Bd) is a common unit of measurement of symbol rate, which is one of the components that determine the speed of communication over a data channel.
It is the unit for symbol rate or modulatio ...
AFSK. The amateur radio sign of UWE-1 was DPØUWE.
End of mission
The last contact with the satellite took place on 17 November 2005. An identical UWE test model was made available to the
Deutsches Museum
The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science and technology, with about 28,000 exhibited objects from ...
in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
in 2012, where it is exhibited together with a test model of the successor UWE-2 in the space department. UWE-1 was followed by the later UWE-2 launched into space on 23 September 2009.
UWE-1 still circles around the Earth today but fell silent after conducting the Internet experiments in 2005. Due to the friction with the rest of the atmosphere, UWE-1 continues braking until it will burn up completely in about 30 years.