BME's Fifth Student Satellite Ends Its Mission

MRC-100, a small satellite reached an orbital altitude of less than 100 km sometime in the early hours of 4 January 2025, then entered the Earth's atmosphere and perished as a working satellite. During its more than one-and-a-half-year mission, the student satellite captured a total of 882,541 different telemetry data packets using ground control and receiving stations.

BME's previous small satellite measured the electromagnetic pollution of the Earth's orbit in the frequency band of terrestrial TV transmitters and produced the world's first map of the pollution in this band. MRC-100's primary mission was to study a much wider frequency range. It carried a measurement system capable of measuring in the 28-1766 MHz and 2000-3120 MHz bands. In addition to independent experiments carried out by three universities (University of Szeged, Széchenyi István University, University of Debrecen), it also carried the measuring instruments of thwo companies, H-Ion and 27G Ltd. During its operation, it was the first to demonstrate the feasibility of stable data transmission rates of 100-200-400 kbit/s in the microwave S-band at 2267.5 MHz in the so-called 3 PocketQube category.

During its mission, MRC-100 had to contend with challenges, such as particle radiation, extreme operating conditions, solar cell degradation, total ionising dose rate. Overall, the mission was well accomplished and provided a lot of useful experience for BME's student satellite development team, although it stayed in orbit for a shorter period of time than planned due to the extreme sunspot activity, according to Levente Dudás, technical leader of the university's pocket satellite projects.

The small satellite was designed and developed by BME students, under the professional guidance of lecturers, and was completed in nearly one and a half years at the Department of Broadband Communications and Electricity, in the Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory, in cooperation with the BME Radio Club. Researchers and students are now working on the next small satellite, HUNITY (NMHH-1), which is expected to be launched into low Earth orbit in Q4 2025.

The main sponsors of the MRC-100 project were the National Media and Communications Authority, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Amateur Radio Digital Communications. A detailed list of supporters is available here.

BME VIK - Rector's Office, Communications Directorate