Jump to content
AAU SpaceEducationStudent Projects

AAUSAT4

The 4th AAU Satellite

AAUSAT4

The AAUSAT4 was the fourth student-built AAU satellite. I was launched in 2016 from French Guyana.

The 4th AAU Satellite

AAUSAT4

The AAUSAT4 was the fourth student-built AAU satellite. I was launched in 2016 from French Guyana.

After three postponed launch attempts, the European Space Agency (ESA) finally succeeded in launching the Soyuz rocket from French Guiana on the 25th of April 2016 - on board was among other the AAUSAT4, the fourth student-built satellite from Aalborg University.

Just as the three predecessors, the AAUSAT4 was a CubeSat measuring 10 x 10 x 10 cm built entirely by students from across the departments at AAU. The satellite was launched as part of ESA Education’s Fly Your Satellite! programme, where the students also had the opportunity to test the AAUSAT4 at the Mechanical Systems Laboratory at ESA’s technical heart, ESTEC, in the Netherlands.

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

The team

AAUSAT4

Visual inspection of the satellite

AAUSAT4

Inside the satellite

AAUSAT4

Preparation tests

AAUSAT4

Working on the P-POD

AAUSAT4

The P-POD

AAUSAT4

The satellite is mounted in the P-POD

AAUSAT4

Succesfully installed in the P-POD

AAUSAT4

Launch of the satellite

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

AAUSAT4

Compared with the AAUSAT3, the AAUSAT4 featured a significant upgrade in software and better-protected solar panels to deliver more power to the satellite.

As its predecessor, AAUSAT3, was reaching the end of its life after 18 months in space, having received a 100.000 signals from ships in the first week alone, the mission of the AAUSAT4 was to track ships around Greenland using radio identification signals. The AAUSAT4 was able to receive AIS identification signals from ships in the area and transmit the information to the ground control stations.

Over two years from 2014-2016, 55 students were involved in the AAUSAT4 project. The satellite was supported by a number of sponsors: the Sparnord Foundation, the Danish Maritime Authority, Printca, Marel Denmark, Hytek Aalborg, Satlab, Mekoprint, Cobham, and Rohde-Schwarz.

You can follow the location of the AAUSAT4 in real time right here

Satellite Facts

Name: AAUSAT4
Type: CubeSat
Units or mass: 1U
Status: Operational (Last CX8AF report 2019-05-017 checked on 2019-05-25)
Launched: 2016-04-25
NORAD ID: 41460
Deployer: ISIPOD [ISISpace]
Launcher: Sojuz
Organisation: Aalborg University
Entity: Academic / Education
Nation: Denmark
Launch brokerer: ISILaunch
Oneliner: Educational training and test improved AIS receiver.

AAU Space

For more information