Researchers from the Functional NanoBioMaterials (FunNanoBio) Group at the CINBIO Research Centre collaborate with the BIXO mission for the launch of a satellite in 2024  

Manuel Diz, Martín Blanco, Lorena Vázquez, Gustavo Bodelón, Daniel García, Isabel Pastoriza, Lorena Conde, Jorge Pérez and Xavier de Rada, in the FunNanoBio lab. | Photograph: Alba Villar.

A team of researchers from the Functional NanoBioMaterials Group (FunNanoBio), part of the University of Vigo’s Centre for Research in Nanomaterials and Biomedicine (CINBIO) and a member of the CIGUS Networks, are advising the UVigo Spacelab students association on the design of BIXO, the nanosatellite that the university aims to launch into space from China in 2024.

The project, coordinated by Manuel Diz and selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) programme Fly Your Satellite!, is based on the development of CubeSat 2U, set to become the fifth satellite to be launched into space by the University of Vigo. This nanosatellite, measuring 20x10x10 centimetres, will contain a miniature laboratory to study the effects of accumulated radiation and microgravity on bacterial colonies that will be activated after nine months in orbit, the time it would take to reach Mars from Earth.

In addition to advising on the device design, the Centre for Research in Nanomaterials and Biomedicine (CINBIO) delivers training for these students and provides a space for prototype testing.

To date, the work has already yielded three scientific papers on the satellite’s structural subsystem, the S-band antenna and the microfluidic components, presented in February in Malaga during the Small Satellites & Services International Forum (SSSIForum).

This will be the first mission into space by CINBIO’s Functional NanoBioMaterials Group. “It’s essential to support such driven and committed students. What’s more, multi-disciplinary projects such as this are of immense interest for the University and its students, as they provide engineers with the opportunity to discover and understand the biologists’ work”, explained Isabel Pastoriza in an article published by the daily newspaper Faro de Vigo.