From Bauman University the New Challenge for IoT

Researchers from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU) have proposed a cheap and simple system to ensure reliable and stable signal transmission throughout the Russian Federation, including hard-to-reach areas.

*Picosatellites core during tests at MSTU. Credits: Bauman University*

It involves deploying a network of small spacecraft, whose constellation will be made up of 384 picosatellites, weighing just one kg and measuring 100x100x38 mm which will occupy a third of the cell of a CubeSat.

Despite such a large number, the project is considered low-budget: 680 million rubles (approximately 7,3 million euros) will be spent on its implementation.

Only the essentials

As project manager Viktor Bulybenko explained, current communications satellites in Russia are quite bulky, but customers do not use all their functionality, for which they have to overpay.

Picosatellites will not have unnecessary functionality, which means that the cost of their creation will be significantly reduced.

In total, it is proposed to produce 384 spacecraft, which will be launched into 16 interpolar orbits, i.e. which pass over the poles of the Earth: thanks to this trajectory, the satellites will be able to receive data over the entire surface of our planet and will provide a stable signal over Russian territory, including the polar regions.

*An early project of picosatellite by MSTU. Credits: Bauman University*

The entire constellation can be launched into space aboard a Soyuz 2.1b class launch vehicle, in three or four launches as a secondary payload.

In the basic version, they will be equipped with mini electric motors running on polyacetal, a cheap plastic material that evaporates under the influence of heat and electrical discharges, turning into plasma.
The latter creates the driving force, accelerated by the magnetic field.

The satellites will carry radio frequency receivers and transmitters on board, which will allow them to exchange small amounts of information at a rate of several kilobits per second.

The use of this constellation of picosatellites ranges across different sectors: for example for the maintenance of remote gas transmission lines or power lines, as well as for the support of unmanned aerial vehicles from space.
Additionally, satellites are capable of remote sensing of the Earth, specifically identifying forest fires, changes in sea ice drift, and much more.

Bauman University

N.E Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MGTU Bauman) is the oldest and one of the most prestigious technical universities in Russia.
Its origins date back to 1764 when the current central building was used as an Imperial educational institute.
It became the Imperial Technical Institute in 1830 and a century later it was named after the revolutionary Nikolai Ernestovic Bauman who was murdered right in front of the main building in 1905.

Famous teachers including Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, Pyotr Nikolaevic Lebedev, Dmitrij Ivanovic Mendeleev, and Andrej Nikolaevic Tupolev taught there.

During the Soyuz MS-21 mission, cosmonauts Oleg Artemev, Denis Matvev, and Sergei Korsakov, all Baumanka graduates, wanted to celebrate their Alma Mater Studiorum by posing, together with the other astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS, in a celebratory suit with yellow and blue colors of their University.

It seemed, in the eyes of the Western press, to be a tribute to the Ukrainian flag, but it was just a beautiful coincidence.