CPUT’s African Space Innovation Centre (ASIC) team, who recently launched the continent’s first satellite constellation, the Marine Domain Awareness Satellites (MDASat), aboard US aerospace company SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, has achieved the first milestone with the three satellites, which is to communicate with them and receive the beacon from each satellite.

Acting Chief Engineer on the project, Nyameko Royi, says: “At 22:55 hours after the launch, we managed to receive the beacon from all three satellites and verified their status with correct battery voltage, the status of the On-Board Computer Image and deployment of the UHF antennae. We managed to also send telecoms to the satellites and successfully received the telemetry.”

Royi adds that the team has not experienced any serious challenge as yet, “although we did have Satellite A booting into fail safe mode, that was sorted immediately by requesting the OBC to reset, and within the following pass, the issue was resolved”.

He says the team is currently commissioning the Altitude Determination Control System, which provides total control of the satellite's orbit such that they are nadir pointing, which will take about two weeks.  “The passes will be 12 if we include ZACube-2 with four satellites, which are estimated useable passes. We have 24 passes, but some won’t be useable with very low elevation.”  Reflecting on the progress made since the launch, Royi says: “We are all excited about the project, and we are hopeful that we will not experience any major concerns from the satellites.”

Royi also states that the Department of Science and Innovation sanctions the mission to observe the Maritime Domain Awareness feed into Operation Phakisa by submitting the captured data to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Oceans and Coasts Information System  Integrated Vessel Tracking project.

The team has not yet commissioned the data link. “About ZACube-2, we have six passes a day. We have three in the morning and another three in the evening,” Royi elaborates.

In addition, Royi says: “I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the project, current CPUT employees and former colleagues. I want to extend this appreciation to other companies that support our mission and are directly or indirectly involved with it. As a team, we would like to thank the CPUT management for their support of the programme from the VC, DVC, Dean and HOD down to trainee lab technicians who provided invaluable time and support for all our programmes and missions.”

Written by Aphiwe Boyce

CPUT Vice-Chancellor Prof Chris Nhlapo congratulated engineers from the university’s African Space Innovation Centre (ASIC) in person when the continent’s first satellite constellation was successfully launched.

The Marine Domain Awareness Satellites (MDASat) have already started successfully transmitting data after they were launched aboard US aerospace company SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

The mission carried 105 spacecraft, including CubeSats, microsats, PocketQubes and orbital transfer vehicles.

On Thursday, the VC and members of his management team joined the ASIC team at the laboratories where the nanosatellites were built in Bellville and watched the launch live with them. The group excitedly tracked the lift-off and then watched the MDASat being deployed about 45 minutes later.

Speaking to members of the media afterwards Prof Nhlapo said it was mission accomplished- for now.

“This was the biggest satellite project to date. Many other projects are in the pipeline, so it is a big niche area. So I say watch this ‘space’,” he said.

“We are a university of technology, and we must dominate in the applied science space; our research must benefit the people of SA. That is why we want to encourage more undergraduate and post-graduate study in this growing field so that the country can keep developing its capacity.”

Acting Chief Engineer on the project, Nyameko Royi, says each satellite will initially make an average of four passes per day, which will steadily increase.

“As satellites eventually drift further apart, we’ll have breaks between overpasses, and as they eventually spread further apart, we will have an average of 12 passes per day. We are also still tracking previously launched nanosatellite ZACUBE-2, which makes it 16 tracking operations per day. We expect an average of 1883k bytes of data to be generated per pass per satellite,” he says.

This data will be used to secure South Africa’s ocean resources, amongst other things.

Written by Lauren Kansley

Tel: +27 21 953 8646
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.

On Thursday 13 January the Cape Peninsula University of Technology is set to launch its third satellite mission into space from the Cape Canaveral launch site in the USA.

The MDASat (Marine Domain Awareness) constellation has two main priorities namely ocean economy and healthcare and has been mandated by the Department of Science and Innovation to enhance South Africa’s ocean’s sovereignty. Operation Phakisa, a fast-track implementation of the National Development Plan, focuses on effective marine domain awareness. The Software Defined Radio payload being used in the mission aims to enhance the security and protection of South African marine resources.

MDASat is CPUT’s third satellite mission and follows on from ZACUBE-1 (TshepisoSat) and ZACUBE-2’s successful development, launch and operation. In the interim, a suite of commercial CubeSat parts have also been developed by CPUT engineers and these will also be in use on the satellites.  

CPUT’s Acting Chief Engineer on the project Nyameko Royi says increased visibility in space by more nations bodes well for all.

“This mission would mark the first constellation of satellites developed and designed in Africa. The more we get people involved in space the better, the more data we extract from space- the better for the world. This is a significant milestone for CPUT and South Africa,” he says.

Dean of the Engineering and Built Environment Faculty at CPUT Prof Marshall Sheldon says the MDASat launch is the latest development in a long timeline of space engineering events at the university, which first began in 2008.

“Each successful development and launch is a paradigm shift away from the traditional space industry norms and we are proud to be at the centre of that. Attracting more undergraduate and postgraduate learners to careers in space science will ensure we can continue celebrating future successes,” she says.   

MDASat Specs

The first three satellites of the MDA constellation will carry an upgraded AIS receiver payload from ZACube-2 and will be capable of the following;

•        Over-the-air upgrades which mean software can be developed and uploaded to the orbiting satellite when ready.
•        Raw data: The payload captures raw data and enhances the opportunity for diagnostic testing on signal interference and decoding messages.
•        Long-Range AIS: These are two specific channels to be used as uplinks for receiving AIS messages by satellite.
•        More effective messaging scheme: The first-generation payload was limited in how it could save data and have it extracted by the ground station. The enhanced data interface will optimize the use of the data transmitter’s bandwidth.

These enhancements pave the way for the future MDASat-2’s development and launch and minimize the risk of damage to the current payload.  

SpaceX, the company founded by SA-born entrepreneur Elon Musk, will be launching the constellation on 13 January 2022 at 17:25 pm (Florida time 10:25 am).

Members of the media and public can watch the launch live using this link www.spacex.com/launches the webcast starts about 10 to 15 minutes before lift-off and ends shortly after payload deployment.

Written by Lauren Kansley

Tel: +27 21 953 8646
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.