Created by University of Manitoba students and faculty, the project is scheduled to fly into space later this spring to conduct research.
A CubeSat known as Iris, developed by the U of M, was selected by the Canadian Space Agency to be transported to the International Space Station. It will eventually be launched into space for asteroid research.
Iris CubeSat mission project manager Andrew Bowman said: “And for all of us contributing to this, it’s great to start a career in aerospace engineering with a real satellite actually going to the ISS and space.”
An iris is about the size of a 2-liter milk carton. Bowman said it will carry the geological samples and expose them directly to the sun. Images of the samples will be taken back to Earth for use in research.
“We plan to analyze how they age so that we can see how asteroids and moons age under the influence of the sun in space,” Bowman said.
The Canadarm will be used to launch Iris into space for research.
The launch is scheduled for June 1st.
– Using files from CTV’s Jon Hendricks
