Centre Spatial Universitaire Montpellier-Nîmes
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| Industry | Formation, research, nanosatellite engineering and tests, expertise |
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| Headquarters | Montpellier, France |
| Website |
www |
The Centre Spatial Universitaire (CSU) Montpellier-Nîmes (Montpellier-Nîmes University Space Center) is a technological platerform of the Montpellier University (Université de Montpellier) (former Université Montpellier 2). Its vocation is the conception, development and testing of student nanosatellites. Nanosatellite activities were started in 2006 By the RADIAC (Radiation and components) team of the Institut d'Electronique et des Systèmes.
Missions
The CSU has 4 main missions :
- Student formation
- Research support
- Nanosatellite engineering and development
- Services and expertise in the 3 previous areas
CSU's formation and research mission
Student involvement
One of the main aspects of the CSU's mission is student formation through nanosatellite projects. Several formations are involved :
- B.Sc. and M.Sc. students from the Montpellier University
- Students from the Nîmes and Montpellier IUTs (University Technological Institute)
- Ph.D. students
Research at CSU
For its research mission, the CSU coordintates Ph.D. and postdoctoral students funded by the Van Allen Foundation. These students, with the CSU personnel, work on and thus present their work in conferences such as the RADECS (Radiation effects on components and systems) and the 4S Symposium [1] (Small Satellites Systems and Services). They do also publish research articles.
Past Projects
Robusta-1A
In 2006, University of Montpellier answered a call for students cubesat projects from CNES with ROBUSTA (Radiation On Bipolar for University Satellite Test Application), an experiment measuring space radiation-induced degradation of bipolar electronic components in order to validate a test method proposed by the RADIAC team of the Institut d'Electronique et des Systèmes. ROBUSTA was selected and after a 6-year development during which about 300 students participated, ROBUSTA was launched on the maiden flight of the Vega launcher on 13th February 2012, becoming the first french cubesat to be launched.
FRP on Baumanets-2
In 2009, the French-Russian collaboration FRIENDS was launched. This project is a partnership between Universite de Montpellier and the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (BMSTU), during which students from Montpellier designed and produced one of the payloads (FRP - French Research Payload) for BMSTU's student satellite Baumanets-2. The payload experiment was derived from Robusta (bipolar component degradation due to space radiation). Student exchanges were also conducted during the project. FRP was designed and tested between 2009 and 2012, and sent to BMSTU in 2013. Baumanets-2's launch is scheduled for summer 2015.
Ongoing projects
Robusta-1B
Robusta-1B (funded by CNES and the Van Allen Foundation) is an upgraded version of Robusta-1A, with new quality assurance procedures which will enable CSU to qualify a new standard 1-U cubesat plateform, dubbed Robusta-1U. Launch is scheduled for December 2015.
Robusta-1C / MTCube
MTCube is a cubesat project funded by the European Space Agency and the Van Allen Foundation. Started in 2014, this project's experiment will test the hardness of several types of memory against space radiation : Flash memory, SRAM, MRAM and FRAM.
Robusta-3A / Méditerranée
This project will be a 3U cubesat.
Experimental rockets
This project allows IUT de Nîmes students to design and test expermimental rockets (Fusex) for Planete Science's C'Space[2] annual challenge. Starting in 2013, a rocket from IUT de Nîmes made a nominal flight, causing IUT de Nîmes eto become the first IUT to be awarded a prize during the C'Space challenge.
CSU's team
The CSU personnel (about 50 people) is composed of associate and full professors, teachers, engineers, post-doctoral students, Ph.D. students, interns and radio hams.
Facilities
Solarium
CSU's project to equip itself with adapted testing facilities was approved and funded by FEDER funds from European Union. These facilities include :
- A low-dose gamma radiation testing facility
- A mechanical and thermal nanosatellite testing facility
Dedicated building
The new installations (Q3-2015) will provide a dedicated work area for the CSU and its industrial collaborators : Intespace, Systheia, Tecnalia and Trad.