Irish space mission announced

An Ciarraioch

The country will launch its first satellite within two years, at a cost of only €5m, and supported by Russia. It's unclear what the purpose of the mission may be, but it seems a worthy endeavour.

http://www.newstalk.com/Ireland-spacecraft-Space-Technology-Ireland-Russia-David-Moore-Susan-McKenna-Lawlor

Uncle Ben

This should be good.:)

Zillah

I don't understand the situation at all. It implies the launch will be from Ireland...I seriously doubt that. Are we building the rocket too? Are there many Irish space rocket engineers? Why is Russia paying for the launch? Is it a Russian rocket? I sincerely doubt they're going to ship it to Ireland to have it launched there, rather than have the satellite shipped to a launch pad in, say, Kazakhstan.

They should just use Space-X, they've always had an emphasis on affordable launches for smaller clients.

seamus

I'm guessing they've managed to secure a contract from Russia to build this thing. I.e. it'll be an Irish-built Russian satellite as opposed to it being a Russian-backed Irish satellite. Probably a pretty small and standard payload, so can be built by a small team using well-trodden technology, and won't require a massive launch site to get it up.

Zillah

seamus wrote: »

Probably a pretty small and standard payload, so can be built by a small team using well-trodden technology, and won't require a massive launch site to get it up.

An Irish-built satellite being sent to Russia for launch makes sense. I seriously doubt they're going to either A) Ship a Proton rocket from Russia to Ireland, or Manufacture a rocket in Ireland. Don't you have to be very strict about where you launch your rockets from? Spin of the Earth, populated areas, etc. I doubt the UK would be happy have an Irish-Russian rocket flying out over Wales.

Space-X didn't go to the Kwajalein Atoll for poops and giggles.

rolion

Great news but...why do we need it for !??
Any guesses ?

namloc1980

Very sketchy details on this. The only thing known for certain about it at this point is that it will be called "Cumar". I'd imagine it will be a secondary payload on a Russian launch in the next year or so. No idea what the objectives of it will be. Must laugh at the caption of the picture in the newstalk link in the OP - "The satellite could look something like this solar orbiter". Yeah sure it will

Maximus Alexander

From that very light article, I expect Russia have just commissioned an Irish company to design and build a satellite. Not a rocket, or a launch, just the bit that ends up orbiting the Earth.

SpaceSasqwatch

You'd have to call it Spudnik 1 ted

no.8

Anybody know of the current situation with the preliminary mission design or general progress?

It would be excellent to have an Irish-designed,developed,manufactured and controlled small-sat piggy-backing on a Russian Launch vehicle. So much would be learned across the board from such a programme, and also in developing a close collaboration with a launch provider(on the cheaper end of the scale). The return would be massive, from Engineering to outreach. Other European countries can vouch for that.

Good luck