The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) wins the TRISKEL Mission Award from Alén Space
April 14, 2022
The TRISKEL Mission Award from Alén Space already has a winner. The jury’s final verdict was made official on Friday April 15, after evaluating all mission applications received from all over the world. The selected project was finally the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) proposal.
All the applications have complied with high-quality standards in terms of innovation and research. Indeed, the jury emphasized the high level of the participants and the difficulty in choosing a winner. Regarding the selected project, the UPC has become in recent years a reference in Europe in the university development of scientific missions with CubeSats, getting a wide range of experience.
This programme was born as an initiative of Alén Space to promote the development of international scientific and educational missions in the field of CubeSats. The deadline for applications was open this year from January 10 to March 15.
The TRISKEL Mission Award goal was to receive proposals from universities, technology centres and organisations that were in the development phase of an academic project with CubeSats. The prize for the winner is the free delivery of a TRISKEL subsystem, an innovative technological solution developed by Alén Space that integrates OBC (On-board Computer) and TTC (Telemetry, Tracking and Command) in one single module.
The origin of the TRISKEL Mission Award
The idea of promoting an initiative such as the TRISKEL Mission Award arises from the experience of the Alén Space team, which has been working for more than 12 years in the design, manufacture and operation of small satellites. Due to its origin as a spin-off from the Universidade de Vigo, the Spanish company is aware of the funding and resource problems that often affect university projects.
Therefore, the decision was made to give away a TRISKEL product, a solution for the command and data handling chain that brings together the most essential systems of a satellite. Any scientific team, which desire to participate in this programme, had to submit certain specific information about its project for detailed evaluation.
A jury made up of experts
The jury’s deliberation process started a month ago, after the deadline for submitting applications. The judging committee was made up of four experts in the development of small satellites: Guillermo Lamelas, CEO of Alén Space; Diego Nodar, COO; Bibiano Arruti, hardware designer; and Fernando Aguado, member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).
The delivery of the TRISKEL solution to the team of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), as indicated in the legal basis, is scheduled for before September 30.