On December 3, 2018 at 19:32 the satellite of the students of the Warsaw University of Technology PW-Sat2 was launched into orbit. Last two years, it completed all planned experiments, including the successful test of the innovative deorbital sail.

The Students’ Space Association of the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology has been working on PW-Sat2 for almost six years.

Students designed a sail to prevent satellites that had already completed their mission from remaining in orbit for a long time. Currently, they stay there for many years after they finish their operation and litter the space. Thanks to the technology tested in PW-Sat2, the deorbitation time of nanosatellites can be shortened even to several months.

The sail was the main experiment. In addition, the mission tested the Sun sensor (which allows to determine the spatial orientation of the satellite in orbit), cameras (recording the opening process of the sail), the mechanism of unfolding solar panels and a system collecting information about the amount of the absorbed ionizing radiation.

PW-Sat2 will be deferred in about 60 days. The satellite will burn in the Earth’s atmosphere.