UNN's Lobachevsky satellite launched into space orbit

On December 28, a Soyuz 2.1b launch vehicle with a Fregat upper stage took off from the launch pad of the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur region. It carried a payload of 52 satellites, including the Lobachevsky satellite developed and manufactured at UNN as part of the Space-π project.

The satellite is based on the Geoscan 16U platform and is equipped with instruments for remote sensing of the Earth. Two spectral cameras will collect data on the state of terrestrial vegetation. The information received from space will be processed using a hardware and software complex developed at Lobachevsky University under the guidance of Vadim Turlapov, Professor at the Institute of Information Technology, Mathematics, and Mechanics.

The second scientific goal of the Lobachevsky satellite's space mission is to study the performance of memristors in space. These new-generation microelectronic elements have already shown radiation resistance in preliminary ground tests. This research is conducted by a team led by Alexey Mikhaylov, Director of the Research and Education Centre "Physics of Solid-State Nanostructures" at UNN.

Another device on board the Lobachevsky satellite is an analog radio signal repeater, allowing radio amateurs worldwide to communicate with each other over distances of up to 3,000 kilometers. Satellites like Lobachevsky enable enthusiasts to begin exploring satellite communications at minimal cost. The repeater was designed and built by Egor Derevesnikov, a second-year student at UNN's Faculty of Radiophysics.

Alongside the Lobachevsky satellite, three more small satellites from Russian universities participating in the Space-π project were launched. Since the project's inception, more than 50 educational satellites have already been placed into space orbit. The UNN satellite project is being implemented with the support of the Innovation Promotion Foundation and the Nizhny Novgorod Research and Education Centre.