Cover Story: Part 1
ALUMNI NEWS MAGAZINE | Summer 2024
On March 21, a piece of New Brunswick reached new heights when UNB’s CubeSat NB VIOLET hitched a ride to the International Space Station (ISS) on a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.
VIOLET joined satellites from Newfoundland’s Memorial University and the University of Sherbrooke for its trip to space. As part of the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) CubeSat Project, these milk-carton-sized pieces of technology can be used to test instruments, conduct experiments or support commercial or educational endeavours in space.
Deployed from the ISS on April 18, all three satellites entered orbit around Earth with the capability of transmitting data back to ground stations using radio signals. VIOLET’s mission is to collect information about the sunspot cycle and its effects on Earth’s upper atmosphere, thanks to its solar panels, which double as orientation sensors.
“It will be one of the first satellites of its kind to study space weather at the altitude of the International Space Station. VIOLET will burn up in orbit in a few months, but its scientific data would be valuable forever.” — Brent Petersen, professor of electrical and computer engineering and co-principal investigator of the CubeSat VIOLET Project.
UNB’s satellite was designed, built and tested over the past five years by almost 300 students from UNB, l’Université de Moncton and the New Brunswick Community College.
The CubeSat Project aims to advance space technology by deploying compact satellites, like VIOLET, for scientific and educational purposes. This initiative highlights Canada’s role in the international space community and its dedication to space exploration.
Named VIOLET after the provincial flower, the satellite is part of the larger CSA project, which saw 15 educational institutions across the country create their satellites.
VIOLET had a brief moment in the sun in November 2023, when it had public viewing at Head Hall on the Fredericton campus before heading to the CSA in Montreal in preparation for the March launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After its deployment from the ISS, VIOLET began its even longer moment in the sun – orbiting Earth for anywhere from three to six months or longer. VIOLET will deliver information about the upper atmosphere, including the ionosphere, the uppermost part of Earth’s atmosphere, where ultraviolet light and x-ray solar radiation cause electrons to pop free of their atomic and molecular bonds, leaving ions behind.
Richard Langley, a geodesy and geomatics engineering professor and radio scientist, says VIOLET is perfectly positioned to study the 11-year sunspot cycle, which is reaching its peak. Energetic particles emitted from the sun can intensify during this period, making the upper atmosphere thicker and providing a wealth of information about the relationship between it and the sun’s activity.
“The satellite will de-orbit faster, the more atoms and molecules that it’s running into. We can learn something about what the atmosphere is doing just by following the motion of the satellite.” — Dr. Langley says of VIOLET’s journey through the atmosphere before disintegrating as it falls back to Earth.
Oriented along the Earth’s magnetic field lines by a magnet at its centre, VIOLET’s four sets of solar panels will capture light variations.
“When we look at the illumination on the solar panels, we’ll get a sense of the dynamics of the satellite,” Dr. Langley says. “Just from tracking data provided by the U.S. Space Command and NORAD, we saw that the orbit of our satellite was significantly affected by the geomagnetic storms in May that produced the beautiful auroras seen around the world.”
VIOLET will not only gather data, but it will also carry a special message for New Brunswickers of Indigenous descent. Cheyenne Joseph, Piluwitahasuwin associate vice-president of Indigenous Engagement, inscribed VIOLET with a Mi’kmaw hieroglyph.
“It means ‘the people.' Knowing that the satellite’s going over the province...this is one way to honour that commitment to work with Indigenous people. It’s a way to leave our mark and to be included.” — Cheyenne Joseph
Samiha Lubaba is an electrical engineering master’s student who worked on the CubeSat project this past summer. “I [worked] on the ground station communications. I’m going to be communicating with VIOLET to make sure it’s working fine up in space.”
Her work involved transmitting information ‘packets’ to and from the satellite using the two large antennas the team set up on the roof of Gillin Hall.
Using Ham Radio Deluxe software, the VIOLET team will try to communicate with the satellite as it makes its numerous passes through the sky, some directly overhead and some just peeking over the horizon. The team estimates it will get about 30 minutes of communication with the satellite daily.
The students, like Samiha at the ground station, will manipulate the antenna’s movement from the building’s control room. An azimuth-elevation rotator track will allow the equipment to rotate and tilt to align with the satellite no matter where it is in the sky above.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to contact VIOLET yet and are not sure what the problem might be,” said Dr. Langley. “It could be that VIOLET’s antenna has not properly deployed. We are investigating different possibilities and are transmitting to the satellite almost every day in the hopes of getting a reply.”
Dr. Langley says for now, the plan is that the UNB station will be the only one actively trying to communicate with VIOLET but that the door is still open to working with a network of other ground stations across the country and even around the world, to collect VIOLET's data.
"The ground station is almost a separate project that students can use to track other kinds of satellites. Even weather satellites or other science satellites. That exposes them to even more aerospace technology."
As one of the students who delivered VIOLET to the CSA in Montreal, Samiha was excited for the March launch.
"It’s a career-transforming project for me. I’m really proud because it’s New Brunswick’s first satellite, and I’m a part of it."
While VIOLET may be the first N.B.-built satellite to go to space, it is certainly not the only technology developed at UNB to leave the planet and contribute to space-based research.
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