2020
2020/11/16 - RAAD Assembly Completed!
The Light-1 CubeSat payload assembly has been completed and the assembly report has been filed to the UAE Space Agency. The detectors are functional and respond to basic checks. The detectors have been shipped to NanoAvionics where they will spend three months for final tests to be conducted on them before launch. The detectors will then be integrated into the CubeSat bus skeleton.
2020/10/30 - CLYMB – Team Activity
The Astroparticle Lab members spent their afternoon on December 30, 2020 at CLYMB Abu Dhabi to de-stress and enjoy wall-climbing at the region’s tallest indoor climbing wall, measuring a mountainous 138 feet in height. It was a great group activity as the lab members cheered for one another as they reached the top, working together in pairs, as one person had to belay while the other person climbed the wall. It was a very wholesome experience.
2020/10/22 - Workshop with Weizmann Institute
Member of the Weizmann Institute for Science and of NYU Abu Dhabi had a collaborative workshop on Tuesday, December 22, 2020. The Weizmann Institute of Science is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary basic research institutions in the natural and exact sciences. It is located in Rehovot, Israel, just south of Tel Aviv. It was initially established as the Daniel Sieff Institute in 1934, by Israel and Rebecca Sieff of London in memory of their son Daniel. In 1949, it was renamed for Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the first President of the State of Israel and Founder of the Institute.
The Weizmann Institute has a lengthy history of investigation and discovery rooted in a mission of advancing science for the benefit of humanity. Simultaneously, it educates a substantial proportion of Israel’s scientific leadership and advances science literacy in schools and among the public. Participants presented talks on already existing collaboration areas on astro-particle physics. Slides can be accessed here.
2020/10/01 - Lolowa at the IAC Cyberspaces Conference
In light of the pandemic, Lolowa presented a recorded presentation on the Light-1 CubeSat mission and space qualifying processes at the International Astronautical Congress online edition called "Cyberspaces Conference".
The presentation and manuscript were under the name "Space Qualifying RAAD CubeSat for the study of Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes and Other Short Timescale Phenomena.". Paper code: IAC-20,B1,3,11,x58771.
The abstract was submitted before the mission's name was changed, thus it says RAAD-sat instead of Light-1 CubeSat.
2020/09/22 - Dr. Adriano at the ESIG Meeting
As is tradition, updated on the Light-1 CubeSat Mission were presented at the Emirates Space Innovation Group. Dr. Adriano presented the updates and shared the grate news of plans for the assembly of the full cubesat.
2020/09/16 - Light-1 CubeSat Updates
The Light-1 payload electronics plan was finalized and will be sent for production. Once acquired, they will be used in the flat-sat assembly which will take place sometime in October. Flat-sat assembly is crucial for testing the collective function of the CubeSat before it is assembled inside the CubeSat bus skeleton.
Rodrigo has taken on the huge challenge of building us our very own CubeSat software protocol.
2020/06/09 - CubeSat Name Change!
The CubeSat RAAD payloads will fly in has officially been named Light-1 (English) ضوء-1 (Arabic). Based on these changes, a new logo is being planned. NYUAD Graphic Design Student Assistant Tonia Zhang is tasked with coming up with mission logo ideas.
2020/06/02 - RAAD Casing
Dr. Adriano oversaw the manufacturing of the RAAD payload casings. The have been made out of aluminum and were made to perfectly fit within a CubeSat bus skeleton taking full advantage of the small space provided.
2020/05 - Our participation in the APPEAR project with the Louvre Abu Dhabi
Started in 2013 by the Getty Museum's Department of Antiquities Conservation, the APPEAR (Ancient Panel Paintings: Examination, Analysis and Research) project aims to increase the understanding of Egyptian funerary portraits of the Roman era. The general idea is to promote quantitative analyses on these portraits, kept in various museums of the world and share the results in a common database. More details can be found here.
One of these portraits is part of the Louvre Abu Dhabi collection, and the museum decided to participate in the initiative in partnership with NYU Abu Dhabi, where our lab performed XRF analysis on it. There have been two XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) measurement campaigns- the first one in November 2019 and the second one in November 2020. In a conversation mentioned in Emirates News Agency, Professor Francesco Arneodo mentioned that "NYU Abu Dhabi is a liberal arts college and a research institution, where we highly value interdisciplinarity. Our application of techniques common in atomic and molecular physics to answer questions in the cultural heritage domain is a perfect example of what we love to do" . "The collaboration with Louvre Abu Dhabi on the APPEAR project is a wonderful opportunity and an example of how universities and museums can work together to answer questions and open opportunities for researchers and students."
Read more about the APPEAR project, highlighted on various media fonts, including Emirates News Agency, Gulf News and Gulf Today.
2020/02/27 - ESIG Presentation
Updates on the RAAD CubeSat Mission were presented for the Emirates Space Innovation Group by Lolowa. The presentation was held in Krypto Labs.
2022/01/31 - Stress Analysis and GEANT 4 Simulations
Stress Analysis Simulations were conducted on the 3D models of RAAD CubeSat's Payloads by Sebastian. The simulation showed the model survived the extreme stress that could be exerted by the launch of the rocket holding the CubeSat.
Particle simulations were conducted on the new 3D models of RAAD detectors. the simulations were done using GEANT 4, and were conducted by Gianmarco. Simulations were done for particles of energies up to 100 MeV, and the probability of capturing the 511 keV particles was established.
2020/01/28 - Talk at the 5th IAA Conference on University Satellite Missions
Dr. Adriano gave a talk on the missions of RAAD CubeSat at the 5th International Academy of Astronautics.