The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced that Nayif-1 has transmitted its first message in Arabic from space – a quote by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, according to a report by the Dubai Media Office.
‘‘The renaissance of people, nations and civilisations starts with education; and the future of nations starts at their schools,” said the message.
Ground stations all over the world that operate on amateur radio bands were able to receive the message. The message was transmitted from Nayif-1’s ground station, located at the American University of Sharjah (AUS), under the supervision of a team of engineers from MBRSC and university professors, as well as MBRSC’s knowledge transfer partner, Innovative Solutions in Space NL.
Nayif-1 is an educational project launched by MBRSC in cooperation with AUS with the goal of providing hands-on experience to Emirati engineering students on designing, building, testing and operating nanosatellites. The nanosatellite Nayif-1 was launched successfully to Space on 15th February 2017 on board a PSLV-C37 rocket, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Nayif-1’s main mission objective is to send and receive messages on Amateur Radio frequencies and stands out as the first 1U nanosatellite that is programmed to transfer text messages in the Arabic language.
