UNOOSA and MBRSC to carry innovations from Bahrain and Nepal to space on the PHI-1 satellite

UNOOSA and MBRSC to carry innovations from Bahrain and Nepal to space on the PHI-1 satellite

UAE: Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), United Arab Emirates, and The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) have announced two winning payloads for PHI-1. Under the MOU signed last year at the 72nd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held in Dubai, UNOOSA and MBRSC together will strive to accelerate and foster innovation in the space technology sector by extending their support and knowledge to the world.

As part of the new announcement, PHI-1 will provide a 5U slot within the 12U modular setup of the satellite to the National Space Science Agency of the Kingdom of Bahrain (NSSA) and the Antarikchya Pratisthan Nepal to onboard their novel projects and test them in space with the necessary assistance.

The “AMAN” payload conceptualized by the team from Bahrain will test an optimized Advanced Encryption Standard, which aims to secure communication between the satellite and the ground station. While the “Danfe Space Mission” of Nepal will study the operation of PX4 Autopilot, a middleware for drones in space, with a focus on how the system’s behaviour and operation. Both the winning payloads will provide practical experience, knowledge, and skills to the teams and will contribute to capacity-building in space technology.

As part of the