Kildare scientist looks forward to launch of Ireland’s first satellite
Ireland's first satellite is due to launch into orbit next week. Designed and built by a student-led team at UCD, EIRSAT-1, will carry three experiments into space and report data back to a command centre on the Irish campus.
Lána Salmon from Celbridge was a key member of the UCD team which developed the EIRSAT-1 satellite which will be launched by rocket into space.
Lána Salmon completed her PhD on Gamma-Ray Bursts and Gravitational Waves in the UCD Space Science group in 2021. She graduated in 2017 with a BSc in Physics with Astronomy and Space Science from UCD.
As a member of the EIRSAT-1 team, Lána worked on communications and the ground segment. She is also extremely passionate about communicating science, and led many of the EIRSAT-1 outreach activities. Lána is now a statistician in the Sustainability/Environmental Division at the Central Statistics Office and is extremely proud of her work with the team that developed Ireland’s first satellite.
Lána said, “EIRSAT-1 was a truly amazing project to work on. The team in UCD is the first in the country to design and build a satellite that will be launched into orbit and then operated from Ireland. Having started on this project as a student, and worked on it for so long, it is extremely exciting to see how it will fare when it is launched by rocket into space next week.
Lána and her EIRSAT-1 team mates in UCD worked with the European Space Agency (ESA),’s ‘Fly Your Satellite program’, to receive outstanding training, space-expert mentoring and hands-on guidance. The development of the spacecraft at UCD has seen the introduction of space systems engineering and skills that have not previously existed in Irish industry or academia.
The satellite’s three experiments will test new space technologies developed in Ireland, including an advanced instrument that will probe the early Universe.
The project has received programmatic and educational support by the ESA Education Office, EIRSAT-1 has received funding from Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Research Council, Enterprise Ireland, UCD, Openet, and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The Irish European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO), has also supported the engagement of school students with inspirational and educational activities around the EIRSAT-1 project.
A flagship project of UCD C-Space, the UCD Centre for Space Research, the UCD School of Physics and UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, EIRSAT-1 is carried out with the support of the Education Office of the European Space Agency, under the educational Fly your Satellite! Programme.