Italian scientists plan to launch a satellite with a microbook written by the Pope into Earth orbit this summer. It will broadcast his words on the radio.
Satellite will broadcast the Pope’s speech
On June 10, 2023, from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is to launch the Spei Satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 525 km.
The name of the satellite translates as “Guardian of Hope”. It was created jointly by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the National Research Council (CNR), the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication and Turin’s Politecnico university.
The main function of the spacecraft is to broadcast around the world the speech of Pope Francis Statio Orbis, which he pronounced on March 20, 2020, in connection with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The broadcast will be carried out at a frequency of 437.5 MHz, so everyone will be able to listen to it using a radio receiver.
Pope wrote a nanobook
The satellite will have a 3U CubeSat format, that is, it consists of three standard cubesat modules. Its size will be slightly larger than a soccer ball. In addition to the transmitter, the nanobook of Pope Francis “Why Are You Afraid? Have You No Faith?”, which repeats the main theses of Statio Orbis.
The book is so small that it can only be read with a special device. It will be placed on board a 30-centimeter CubeSat by a group of 25 young men and women led by Sabrina Corpino, director of the Laboratory of Systems and Technologies for Aerospace Research at the Turin Polytechnic University. The spacecraft will remain in orbit for 6 months.
According to www.ansa.it.
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