IST told Lusa that the signals were received on Tuesday, “a few hours” after the nanosatellite was placed into orbit.
It indicated in a statement, without specifying, that “data regarding the presence of aircraft in remote areas will not arrive until the coming weeks.”
In an earlier note, IST noted that the first data would be sent about a month after operations begin.
The astronauts’ “home” and laboratory, ISTSat-1, built 580 kilometers above Earth, above the International Space Station, and built by IST students and professors, will be used to test a new decoder for messages sent from aircraft that will allow them to analyze them in remote areas and evaluate the feasibility of using nanosatellites to receive signals about the status of an aircraft, such as speed and altitude, for aviation safety purposes.
The first signals already received from the nanosatellite “are being analyzed by the IST team”, which “is trying, remotely, to understand the health status” of the device.
“The Portuguese and international community of radio amateurs has played a crucial role in the process of collecting information from the satellite,” adds the statement from the Higher Technical Institute, which receives information from ISTSat-1 at its communications station operating in the Oeiras Center.
ISTSat-1, a cube that costs around 270,000 euros, is the first nanosatellite designed by a Portuguese academic institution and the third Portuguese satellite to be sent into space, after the nanosatellite Eros MH-1, in March, and the microsatellite PoSat-1, in 2018. 1993 which benefited from the contribution of companies.
The Técnico nanosatellite, launched as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) programme for academic institutions, will remain in orbit for between 5 and 15 years before re-entering the atmosphere, but its mission will be for a shorter period.
In addition to ISTSat-1, other small satellites and scientific equipment were sent from foreign institutions, companies and space agencies.
