Iris (ManitobaSat 1)

Iris [University of Manitoba]

Iris or ManitobaSat 1 is a Canadian 3U CubeSat developed by University of Manitoba STARLab to study how space conditions affect the composition of asteroids and the Moon so that researchers on Earth can better understand those effects when studying their cousins, meteorites. This mission will also help better understand the origins of asteroids when we combine this data with the data from asteroid sample-return missions, such as the OSIRIS-REx mission.

Educational mission by CSA to allow professors and university students to conduct space missions from conception to launch to decommissioning. Geology mission to send meteorite, lunar and other geological samples back to space to supplement research of NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex mission. Educational outreach mission by involving elementary school students to design their own gnomon payload experiment that will act as a pointing indicator for our geology payload- Technology demonstration for novel sun sensors from York University. Proposing a UHF downlink using 9k6 FSK over Canada.

The satellite was launched onboard the Dragon CRS-28 cargo spacecraft to the ISS, from where it was deployed in July 2023.