‘So surreal’: University of Calgary students celebrate as their satellite orbits earth

University of Calgary students gathered to watch a satellite they built get launched into space.

A satellite built by University of Calgary students during their free time is now in space.

“It feels so surreal,” said Aarti Chandiramani, a student who spent four years working on the project.

“(It’s) hitting all of our milestones (and) has been really, really rewarding.”

Chandiramani and other members of CalgaryToSpace celebrated the successful deployment of their FrontierSat satellite at a watch party as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched in the early morning hours on Sunday.

It wasn’t a school project but an idea created by students.

The satellite is roughly the size of a loaf of bread and is orbiting about 500 kilometres above earth as it collects data and communicates with the team on the ground at U of C’s Rothney Astrophysical Observatory.

Students look forward to twice a day hearing the static bursts and seeing incoming codes indicating FrontierSat is over the horizon and in reach of the observatory’s antennae.

Amy Brunton, a U of C student who spent two years working on the project, says

“It feels (that) without being able to communicate with (the satellite), you’re basically just flying a brick so being able to kind of contribute to getting that information and starting this new phase of the satellite is really exciting,” she said.

The students will be collecting data for research for the next three years.

Meagan Davies, a student who joined the team four years ago, said launching the sateillite has resulted in “a lot of really exciting firsts for the team.”

“Getting to see all of the work kind of culminate at this at this stage is quite rewarding,” she said.

The team eventually plans to collect FrontierSat’s imaging of the ionosphere, which could provide insight about a recently discovered phenomenon known as the Strong ThermalEmission Velocity Enhancement (STEVE). That effect creates purple and green ribbons of light in the night sky, similar to the northern lights.

About 100 students have been involved in the project since it started in 2020. Some are surprised when they add up all the free time they’ve spent working on it.

“Apparently, I spent over 2,000 hours on this project and I did not keep track of that,” said an electrical engineering student Ebube Anachebe, who joined the project in 2022.

Anachebe says she kept coming back to the project to hone her problem-solving skills while watching the satellite come together.

Problem-solving skills have been critical for the whole team to keep the project afloat. Along with designing and creating the device, they also had to raise about $300,000 and navigate federal and international regulations.

Complications with customs also required a last-minute change of plans that had teammates renting a U-Haul to drive the satellite over the border to SpaceX in California ahead of its launch.

The team hopes FrontierSat shows others what you can achieve when you set your sights high.

“I hope people feel inspired feel ready to kind of take on new opportunities,” Davies said.

The CalgaryToSpace team says a second satellite is already in the works, and they plan to build more parts from scratch and collect more scientific data.