A team of students in grades 9-11, mentored by Konstantin Kulyabin, Head of the Strategic Development and Innovation Department of the Scientific Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (NIIMash, part of the Roscosmos State Corporation), won the Sirius Ural project shift. The shift took place from 8 to 28 January 2021 in Sochi. During this time, the team members had to develop from scratch a project for the “Prototype of the propulsion system for correcting the orbit of a small nano-class spacecraft of the CubeSat format”
As the project mentor Konstantin Kulyabin said, during the work, the students performed all the necessary calculations, developed 3D models of parts and their drawings. With the help of modern technologies, the guys manufactured parts of units and assemblies, and then assembled and conducted laboratory tests of the propulsion system prototype. At the end of the shift, the students presented their project, showing the feasibility of using a propulsion system to expand the functionality of nanosatellites.
The winners of the project decided not to stop there and continue to develop it further. Currently, negotiations are underway to organize cooperation between NIIMash and the Ural Federal University, including the inclusion of the project in the Program of activities of the Ural Interregional Research and Education Center of the world level “Advanced production technologies and materials”.