The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, have selected a team from the University of Nairobi to be the first to benefit from the UNOOSA JAXA KiboCUBE programme. As the successful candidate, the University of Nairobi team plans to use KiboCUBE CubeSat to test technologies it has developed for the future launch of a larger earth observation.
KiboCUBE was launched in September 2015 as a capacity-building initiative between UNOOSA and JAXA to offer educational and research institutions from developing countries the opportunity to deploy cube satellites called CubeSats from the Kibo module of the International Space Station. Applications for the first round of KiboCUBE selection closed in March 2016 and a number of impressive applications were received.
As the successful candidate, the University of Nairobi team plans to use its KiboCUBE CubeSat to test technologies it has developed for the future launch of a larger earth observation satellite. The team also hopes to apply data acquired from its CubeSat deployment to monitoring of agriculture and coastal areas.
“This is a very exciting moment and an important step in UNOOSA’s movement towards tangible initiatives in our capacity-building efforts. Innovative projects like KiboCUBE can achieve concrete results and have a real impact on space science and technology development for the benefit of all,” said UNOOSA Director Simonetta Di Pippo.
The Japanese Experiment Module, called Kibo which means hope in Japanese, is Japan’s first human space facility and enhances the unique research capabilities of the International Space Station. Experiments in Kibo focus on space medicine, biology, Earth observations, material production, biotechnology and communications research. Kibo experiments and systems are operated from the Mission Control Room at the Space Station Operations Facility, at Tsukuba Space Center in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, just north of Tokyo.
A CubeSat is a type of miniaturised satellite for space research that is made up of multiples of 10×10×11.35 cm cubic units. CubeSats have a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats are most commonly put in orbit by deployers on the International Space Station, or launched as secondary payloads on a launch vehicle.
KiboCUBE is the dedicated collaboration between United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in utilising ISS Kibo for the world. KiboCUBE aims to provide educational or research institutions from developing countries of United Nations membership with opportunities to deploy, from the ISS Kibo, cube satellites which they develop and manufacture.
Kibo consists of several components: two research facilities – the Pressurized Module and Exposed Facility; a Logistics Module; a Remote Manipulator System; and an Inter-Orbit Communication System unit. Kibo also has a scientific airlock through which experiments are transferred and exposed to the external environment of space.
Currently, the only way to deploy CubeSats from the ISS is from Kibo. Kibo’s unique capability is comprised of an airlock system and a robotic arm. The first orbital deployment of CubeSats from Kibo was successfully conducted in October 2012 through the Small Satellite Orbital Deployer developed by JAXA. Since then, nano-satellites and CubeSats from various countries around the world have been deployed from Kibo.
The deployment of CubeSats from ISS is easier than the direct deployment by a launch vehicle thanks to the lower vibration environment during launch. With this comparatively less demanding interface requirements, UNOOSA and JAXA believe that KiboCUBE will lower the threshold of space activities and will contribute to build national capacity in spacecraft engineering, design and construction.
