39135 - SOMP

SOMP (Student's Oxygen Measurement Project) is a student picosat project of the Techniche Universitat Dresden. SOMP has two scientific objectives: the first objective is to measure the concentration of atomic oxygen in the upper atmosphere using an oxygen electrolyte sensor. The second is the testing of flexible thin film solar cells (TFSC), that have never been tested in space before. More information about the payloads can be found on the internet page of the Institute of Aerospace Engineering of the TU Dresden.

The satellite was developed by students in the years between 2008 - 2012 at the TU Dresden. The project is funded by various companies who sponsored materials such as solar cells and PCBs. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has also partly funded the project from 2008 (50RU0802). The project management is done by the Department of Space Systems and Utilization and is supported by the Department of High Frequency Technology and the "Universitatszentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt" or UZLR. The ground station and operations is conducted jointly from the ILR and the "Berufliches Schulzentrum fur Elektrotechnik" (BSZET) and the German Amateur Radio Club (DARC e.V.)

Facts in Brief

Launch Date: 2013-04-19
Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-2.1a
Launch Site: Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), Kazakhstan
Mass: 1.0 kg