The Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) and Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) inaugurated the first clean room for the assembly of nano-satellites at Taguspark campus on December 5. The event took place in the context of the 30th anniversary of IT.

According to Rui M. Rocha, Co-Director of the IST Nanosat Lab, “this is an essential infrastructure for anyone who wants to work on aerospace projects, especially from a certain size”.

The clean room, classified ISO-7 or class 10000 has a filtering system (HEPA) ventilating the air with positive pressure into the room and allowing to work in an environment with a reduced number of particles (≤ 352000) of very small size per m³.

José Carlos Pedro, President of IT, took the opportunity to thank IT and IST for the investment made in the new room and in the support infrastructure, and highlighted “it is up to each researcher to put forward proposals and then knock on our door to share his/her ideas and explain the reasons why they should be supported. And we support them because, in fact, that’s the great merit of IT”.

Inside the room there was ISTSat-1, the first Portuguese university satellite (CubeSat), fully developed and manufactured in Portugal. The goal of the IST Nanosat team is to launch the satellite into orbit, which is expected to happen on the inaugural flight of Ariane 6. For this, it is necessary to prevent ISTSat-1 from being placed on board the launcher with as few spurious particles as possible in order to prevent them from harming their operation, in an environment of weightlessness, as well as that of other satellites that are on board.

The ISTSat-1, despite being a small cube with a 10-centimetre edge, works like any other satellite. In particular, it uses a compact, low-power system for receiving ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) signals. These signals are transmitted by aircraft and make it possible to locate them, making it easier to pinpoint the location of an aircraft in the event of an accident.