A student-built satellite from the University of Victoria is set to launch into orbit this month, carrying a dual mission that combines atmospheric science with an open-source communications system. The CubeSat, called MARMOTSat, will lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The shoebox-sized spacecraft was built by students and researchers at the University of Victoria Centre for Aerospace Research and the UVic Satellite Design Team. Once in orbit, the satellite will carry out two main tasks. One focuses on the ionosphere, a charged layer of Earth’s upper atmosphere that affects radio signals and navigation systems. The mission aims to collect data that could help improve understanding of how that region behaves and whether it is being influenced by long-term environmental change. The second objective is technological. MARMOTSat carries a radio communications system that the UVic team plans to release so others can use it as a starting point for their own satellite communications systems. Engineer Blake Baldwin says the goal is to make that technology accessible beyond the university itself. “What we’re open-sourcing is the spacecraft radio itself,” Baldwin said. “This means that other university teams, research groups, or hobbyists can take what we’ve built and use it as a starting point, instead of designing a satellite radio system completely from scratch,” Baldwin said in a statement. The project is the second CubeSat developed through UVic’s growing space program, following an earlier mission that demonstrated the university’s ability to design and operate spacecraft in orbit. MARMOTSat expands that work with more complex science and a broader technology-sharing component. Afzal Suleman, director of the Centre for Aerospace Research, says the long-term goal is to build continuity between missions rather than treat them as one-off projects. “What we’re constructing is a sustainable and comprehensive space engineering program where one mission informs the design and ambition of the next,” he said in a statement. A third mission, PolarLink, is already in development for 2027 and will focus on improving communications in Canada’s North, including advanced space-based links. Beyond the engineering, the program is also a training ground for students to gain hands-on experience building flight hardware and work through the demands of a real space mission. Sydney Macdonald, a member of the UVic Satellite Design Team, said the experience directly shaped her career path. “Working on MARMOTSat was the most useful learning experience of any co-op I’ve had,” Macdonald said in a statement. “I got to contribute to multiple subsystems and work with different types of technologies and hardware, which gave me a breadth of skills I couldn’t have gotten otherwise. That experience is the reason I was offered a position building satellites after graduation.” When launch day arrives, UVic team members will travel to California to watch from Vandenberg alongside Canadian Space Agency officials, while others will follow from Victoria during a public viewing event and livestream. If deployment goes as planned, confirmation could come within hours of separation from the rocket. From there, the mission moves from launch to operations as researchers begin working with the data it sends back.
