By Théo Pirard

OUFTI has been launched! Students at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, supported by professors at the LTAS department (Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering) and the Montefiore Institute Dpt. of Electrical Engeneering and Computer Science), have won a place aboard the European Space Agency’s small Vega rocket launcher. The objective: to launch their educational 1kg nano-satellite during the second half of 2009.

‘Oufti’, a popular expression in Liège (almost untranslatable but meaning something like ‘Wow’!), could soon pass into space technology vocabulary as an acronym for Orbital Utility for Telecommunications/Technology Innovations. It names a nano-satellite project - of the 'Cubesat type’ – which is being carried out by students taking a Masters in the University of Liège’s Faculty of Applied Sciences, based on an idea suggested by Luc Halbach, an amateur radio operator and engineer at Spacebel in the Liege Science Park. OUFTI-1 should be the first fully Belgian satellite, even if of a modest size, as the 94kg PROBA-1 satellite, in orbit at 500km since October 2001, is a satellite which was 'made in Belgium' within the framework of ESA's technological programme.

Boosted by professors Gaetan Kerschen at the LTAS/3SL (Space Structures and Systems Laboratory) and Jacques Verly at the Montefiore Institute/EECS (INTELSIG Laboratory), the University of Liège has propelled itself into the project of building a 1kg ‘Cubesat’ with a standardized shape and size that can be held by one hand. In space, between altitudes of 350 and 1200km, this cube of around 10cm, packed with micro-electronics – it is there that the technological challenge lies - will test a world 'first' in orbit. OUFTI-1, once placed in orbit around the Earth, will become the first relay station in space for the new digital telecommunications D-STAR protocol for amateur radio operators across the planet (Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio).

What a story in Liège!

At the beginning of 2008, in order to become familiar with using this protocol, the Montefiore Institute equipped itself with the first Belgian terrestrial relay station for the D-STAR telecommunication system. This equipment worked perfectly on its first radio link ('contact' in amateur radio jargon), which took place on the 3^rd of January 2008. Working with the call-sign ON0ULG, it sparked lots of interest amongst students and gave birth to amateur radio vocations. To obtain the licence, courses must be taken, as well as an exam. This is the price that a number of people are willing to pay as they want to be ready to participate in the OUFTI-1 odyssey.

A first trio of students, two from the Montefiore Institute and one from the LTAS department worked on the idea – the OUFTI-1 concept of D-STAR contacts through miniaturised relay stations – for their Master's theses project. They presented their nano-satellite project to the European Space Research and Technology Centre at Noordwijck (Holland). The objective was to pick up a place for free on the maiden ESA Vega rocket launch. Stefania Galli (from Milan, in the 5^th year as a student in aerospace engineering), Philippe Ledent and Jonathan Pisane (in their 4^th and 5^th year as student in electrical engineering, respectively) formed the first pioneering ‘Cubesat’ team in Belgium. They were helped by two doctoral students, Amadine Denis (LTAS) and Jean-François Vandenrijt (CSL/Liège Space Centre).