UAE broadcasts from space
Dubai Ruler’s message was launched along with Nayif-1 satellite and is being picked up by amateur radio operators across the world. Thamer Al Subaihi reports on the information Sheikh Mohammed wanted to spread
ABU DHABI // A message by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, is being beamed across the world from space as the first to be transmitted by the UAE’s Nayif-1 satellite
Nayif-1 was launched last week from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India and is being tracked by a team of scientists at a control centre at American University of Sharjah.
The country’s first nanosatellite is transmitting the message in Arabic which reads: “The renaissance of peoples, nations and civilisations starts with education; and the future of nations starts at their schools.”
Nayif-1’s main mission goal is to send and receive messages on amateur radio frequencies.
The nanosatellite boasts a number of features, most notably it is programmed to transfer messages in Arabic.
Amateur radio operators as far away as Japan and Chile have received data from Nayif-1, coming from its ground station at the university and relayed by the satellite.
Ham radio operators in Spain, Sweden, Haiti, the US and even those out at sea, took to Twitter to say they were receiving the satellite’s message loud and clear.
Fatma Lootah, deputy project manager of Nayif- 1 at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, said the transmission was a landmark moment for the team.
“There is a large community of amateur radio operators and if Arab operators get this message in their own language I think a lot will be inspired,” she said.
At the university, seven engineering students collaborated with the space centre in the designing, building, testing and operating of Nayif-1.
Abdulla Al Shehhi, one of the students who worked on the project for more than a year, said yesterday was a proud moment.
“It’s an incredible feeling and I hope the message communicates to others, whether they are radio operators or students, that nothing is impossible,” said the 24- year- old mechanical engineering graduate.
As well as transmitting the first messages in Arabic, the project gave engineering students valuable knowledge about the science, technology, engineering and mathematics involved in sending the device into space. Four of the seven students working on Nayif- 1 have now been hired by the space centre, including Mr Al Shehhi.
“I faced many challenges in the project because we had to do the work of professional engineers, but I am very happy to be a part of UAE history,” he said.
Travelling at an altitude of more than 600 kilometres at 7.55km a second, the nanosatellite passes over its ground station at the university campus twice in the morning and twice in the evening.
The decision to locate the ground station on the campus, where it is accessible to students, was to catch their imagination.
“We wanted to excite students and show them space isn’t that far for them,” Ms Lootah said. Nayif- 1 was launched last Wednesday. It was one of 104 satellites released from a single rocket. The satellite’s telemetry and transponder data are available online at Amsat-UK, the UK’s amateur satellite community website.
Amateur radio operators as far away as Japan and Chile have received data from Nayif-1