english
The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) has achieved a significant milestone by being selected as Peru's representative inthe APSCO CubeSat Competition (ACC), an initiative launched by the Asia-PacificSpace Cooperation Organization (APSCO) in April 2023. APSCO, which includesChina, Iran, Turkey, Thailand, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Pakistan, and Peru, aimsto promote the exchange of resources in science, technology, and spaceapplications among its members.
The ACC project aims for students from selected universities of the different member states to develop an engineering model of a standard 3UCubeSat satellite. To be considered as Peru's representative, the PUCP team competed with two other local universities, ultimately achieving the highest scoreby the APSCO judging panel, which consisted of 10 space experts. This led CONIDA to choose them to represent Peru, securing APSCO funding for the continuation of the project.
This initiative is led by the Institute of Radio Astronomy(INRAS) through Professor MSc. Neils Vilchez, who heads the university team named “PUCP INTISat Initiative” (Ideate New Technologies for InnovativeSATellites), with the aim of involving students in satellite development.
From May 21 to 23, 2024, APSCO organized the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) meeting for each mission through a virtual platform. The objective of the meeting was to evaluate the initial design of the satellites from the 17 participating teams. The PUCP INTISat team presented their proposal at this meeting, standing out among the best projects.
From July 8 to 10, 2024, the third virtual training course on space topics was held as part of the project, with the participation of the teams nominated by APSCO member states. During the opening ceremony, Mr.Yansong Xu, Director General of the Education and Training Department of APSCO,welcomed all participants and congratulated the selected teams for their performance. The PUCP team, PE-PUCP INTISat Initiative, was one of the standout teams in this competition.
The victory of the PUCP team is not only an academic triumph but also an opportunity for PUCP students to apply and enhance their knowledge in a real project, developing technical and management skills in the field ofspace technology. This experience provides students with a platform to demonstrate their ability to face space mission challenges, interact with teams from more developed countries in this field, and expand their network.
We congratulate the PUCP INTISat Initiative team for theiroutstanding performance and wish them continued success in demonstrating theknowledge and skills learned at the university.
List of PUCP Participants:
