CNIT is partner of D-Orbit in D-SAT space mission
D-Sat (https://www.dsat.space/) is the first satellite in history that will come back into Earth’s atmosphere in a safe and controlled way and burn up instead of becoming new debris. D-Sat is a three-unit CubeSat designed, built, and operated by D-Orbit. It will be launched into a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit.
D-Sat will be launched in May 2017, and perform the decommissioning maneuver sometimes afterward. But there is much more to D-Sat than just re-entry. We wanted to make sure that this mission would harness the full potential and opportunities granted by sending a satellite to space, so we partnered with several institutions to include three experiments that will be performed throughout the mission’s lifetime. In tune with our philosophy, all three experiments have a social impact.
Other than technology validation, the other main goal of the D-Sat mission is scientific investigation.
If fact throughout its mission D-Sat will perform three experiments: SatAlert, Debris Collision Alerting System (DeCas), and Atmosphere Analyzer.
SatAlert, designed in collaboration with CNIT and the University of Florence, is an in-orbit validation of the Multiple Alert Message Encapsulation (MAMES) emergency protocol. D-Sat will collect MAMES emergency messages sent from a ground station, store them onboard, and re-broadcast them to national public safety entities upon receiving a trigger command. This experiment will validate a typical emergency scenario where civil defense agencies need a means to broadcast instructions in areas affected by natural disasters when the ground telecommunication infrastructures have been damaged.