F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s first satellite, ICUBE-Qamar (ICUBE-Q), has successfully beamed back first images of the moon, the Institute of Space Technology (IST) in Islamabad said on Friday, days after it entered the lunar orbit.
The ICUBE-Qamar satellite carries two optical cameras to image the lunar surface and weighs around 7kg. Cubesats are tiny box-shaped satellites that are mainly launched into low Earth orbit to observe the Earth, test new communications technology, or perform miniature experiments.
The satellite was launched aboard China’s Chang’e-6 probe on May 3. The Chinese probe is tasked with landing on the far side of the moon, which perpetually faces away from the Earth, after which it will retrieve and return samples. China is the first country to make such an ambitious attempt.
“Exciting news from ICUBE-Q! Our satellite has captured its first images, and they’re stunning,” IST, which contributed to the satellite’s development, wrote on X.
“Check out these shots where you can see both the moon and the sun in some of the images. Stay tuned for more updates from ICUBE-Q!“
Soon after the satellite entered the lunar orbit at 1:14pm Pakistan time on Wednesday, Dr. Khurram Khurshid, the head of the electrical engineering and computer science department at the IST and a co-lead on the project, said initial tests revealed there were no complications with the cubesat’s system.
The development meant Pakistan was officially in an exclusive club of countries that had conducted deep space missions, the official added.
Around 100 students from the IST contributed to developing the satellite. Pakistan’s proposal to build the satellite was accepted by the China National Space Agency (CNSA) from plans submitted by eight member states of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO).
The design, development, and qualification of the ICUBE-Q satellite were spearheaded by faculty members and students of the IST in collaboration with China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), with support from Pakistan’s National Space Agency, SUPARCO.
Courtesy: arabnews
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