The RTU MIREA1 spacecraft was launched into the Earth orbit by means of the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle

On November 5, the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle was set up from the Vostochny Cosmodrome with 16 small spacecraft of the Space-π research and educational project, including the one of RTU MIREA1.

The RTU MIREA1 small spacecraft (3U CubeSat format) was developed jointly with Geoscan as part of the Space-π project of the Planet Duty Officer Program with the financial support of the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises under Agreement 94C2/MOL/73887 of March 25, 2022.

The RTU MIREA1 small spacecraft is designed to conduct educational activities as part of the Space-π project, during which flight tests of a visible-range optical camera and a receiver of signals from the GLONASS/GPS global navigation satellite systems are planned for studying the state of the ionosphere and troposphere. The device is also aimed at conducting experiments on inter-satellite communications using a receiving and transmitting module.

Using an optical camera of the visible range will allow to study aspects of the formation of the Earth's cloud cover.

The use of the signals receiver from the global navigation satellite systems GLONASS/GPS allows to use the method of radio occultation sounding of the ionosphere. For this method, the sources of radio signals are spacecraft of the global navigation satellite systems GLONASS/GPS, and the receiver must be installed on a low-orbit spacecraft. Due to the influence of the ionosphere, a low-orbit spacecraft is able to receive navigation signals while being outside the line of sight.

Space-π is a research and educational project of the Planet Duty Officer Program. The organizer is the Foundation for Assistance to Innovations. Schoolchildren, students, universities and Russian companies participate in the project. Space-π allows schoolchildren to learn how small spacecraft are designed, how a payload is created and how a space experiment is implemented with its help. The young people study the systems for receiving space information and the possibilities of controlling a satellite in orbit, and the processing of the received data.

The Innovation Assistance Fund is a state development institute that implements grant support tools to nurture innovative companies from the seed stage to IPO, which cover schoolchildren, students and scientists under 30 years old, as well as small innovative companies at both the seed stage and business scaling. The size of the grants provided ranges from 500 thousand to 50 million rubles. Over the 30 years of its existence, the fund has supported over 40 thousand projects, which led to the creation of more than 12 thousand startups. With the participation of the fund, 450,000 schoolchildren are involved in science, 25,000 young scientists have received grants for project development.

The RTU MIREA1 small spacecraft (3U CubeSat format) was developed jointly with Geoscan as part of the Space-π project of the Planet Duty Officer program with financial support from the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises under Agreement 94C2/MOL/73887 of March 25, 2022.