Italian and Kenyan students work on first nanosatellite

Rome  - Kenya wants to conquer outer space with 1Kuns, the First Kenyan University Nanosatellite. The device will be produced in Rome's La Sapienza University laboratories, where a joint team of Italian and Kenyan students from the University of Nairobi will work together, with the financial support of ASI, the Italian Space Agency. The project envisages a CubeSat for the observation of the Earth, a small cube-shaped satellite which should be completed by 2017. The programme is part of the International Master Course on Space Mission Design and Management, launched by the DIAEE (Department of Astronautics, Electrical and Energetics Engineering) of La Sapienza University in cooperation with the University of Nairobi. The scientific person of reference of the Kenyan Engineering School is Mwangi Mbuthia, who will be in Rome on Tuesday to present the project. Mbuthia will be accompanied by Fabrizio Piergentili, from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (DIMA), and the director of the Master Course, Fabio Santoni from DIAEE. The idea stems from the Ikuns contract, within the framework of ASI-La Sapienza cooperation agreement for the management and development of research activity at Malindi's Broglio Space Center of the University of Rome, and is run by the Italian Space Agency. The Italo-African university team and the value of their work have been acknowledged when the 1Kuns-KenyaSat mission was selected, among 13 nations, by the UNOOSA - the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and by JAXA, the Japanese Space agency, to place into orbit the satellite on board of the Japanese Kibo module to the international space station. The official announcement of the first Kenyan CubeSat project was made at the "UN-IAF Workshop on Space Technology for Socio-Economic Benefits", organised by the United Nations in September in Guadalajara, Mexico. (AGI). .