A CubeSat is a miniature satellite small enough to be held in your arms. The purpose of CubeSats range from scientific experiments, radio applications, Earth observation, to demonstrating feasibility of spacecraft technologies.
Space Concordia’s current CubeSat in development aims to fulfill the latter two functions.
Our Spacecraft Division was Space Concordia’s inaugural design team and has participated in the Canadian Satellite Design Competition for many years.
Now, we are taking that experience to the next level with the Canadian CubeSat Project.
Space Concordia makes a continuous effort to be more than just your average student society with a typical competition-based structure; we aim to be similar to a space agency where we show our expertise not only through the projects we develop, but also through the actions we do on a larger scale to benefit the world as a whole.
Space Concordia’s Orbital Dust Imaging Nanosatellite (SC-ODIN) is a 3U CubeSat that seeks to capture imaging data over Canada, Lake Colhué Huapí in Argentina, and Namibian coastal regions to characterize the aerosol particles that are present in the dust storms which frequent these locations. The images will be transmitted back to Earth for processing with the goal of extracting aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements from the dust storm particles.These AOD measurements will be used by climate scientists at the University of Montreal to update their climate models.
SC-ODIN is Concordia's participant in the Canadian Space Agency’s CubeSat Project (CCP) as one of 15 schools from across Canada selected to design, build, and launch a novel mission into space. Space Concordia's entry into the project entered development in summer 2018. The satellite is designed and built by university students representing every faculty at Concordia, in partnership with the University of Montreal and the Gina Cody School of Engineering & Computer Science.
The primary goal of the CCP is to give students of varying backgrounds the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in developing the skills necessary to conduct a real space mission. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, students involved are pushing boundaries, innovating, and advancing scientific excellence, propelling them to become the next generation of space leaders.
In the final iteration of Aleksandr, this satellite continued its work on self-healing properties and came out at 3rd place.
Aleksandr I improved on the concepts from the second iteration of CSDC. In the preliminary round, conducted in July 2015 in Vancouver, Aleksandr satellite ranked 2nd amongst all Canadian universities. With the help of over 50 students, in the 3rd year of CSDC, we were happy to take home the 1sr place trophy.
CONSAT II is a satellite which has been in development by Space Concordia since 2012 and its mission is to study the long-term performance of a new self-healing material in a microgravity environment. This new technology was developed by Dr Suong. V. Hoa, a professor at Concordia University. This self-healing material is of high interest for the aerospace community. If a self-healing shield were to be implemented on spacecraft, they would be better protected from micro particle impact. CONSAT subsequently won 2nd place in CSDC in 2014.
Consat-1 is Space Concordia’s first satellite that is tasked to study the radiation patterns of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). The SAA is a region where the Earth's inner Van Allen belt comes closest to the Earth's surface, and is infamous for causing strange fluctuations in radiation intensity. The development of Consat-1 marked the creation of Space Concordia and continues to be revered as one of the society’s greatest successes. Not only is it an incredible piece of engineering, but Consat-1 is also a symbol for Space Concordia as its legacy continues to inspire the society’s students to strive for innovation and excellence.
Space Concordia is a student society at Concordia University that throws its members at challenging space and aerospace projects, to yield awesome results.
We win awards at national and international competitions, we showcase our school, but most importantly: Space Concordia teaches and trains excellent young scientists and engineers through hands-on work and an attitude of persistence and collaboration.
Although we only have a couple of members listed here, Space Concordia is composed of a much larger team of equally passionate people. Our job as executives is to act as ambassadors for the team and to support all Space Concordia members. We're proud and honored to be part of such an amazing team.
We invite members to read through the Space Concordia Constitution. Members are also free to suggest changes to the document.Space Concordia Constitution