First-MOVE
First-MOVE was the first CubeSat of the MOVE project. Development began in 2007 under the tutelage of Professor Dr. Ulrich Walter of the Chair of Astronautics (LRT). It was intended primarily as a project for the chair’s PhD students, to serve as a technology demonstrator for in-house developed systems such as the attitude control system. The mission duration was three months. First-MOVE started from Orenburg, Russia into a 635km Low Earth Orbit.
Besides the technology developed by the LRT, First-MOVE also served as a testbed for newly developed triple junction GaAs/Ge solar cells, provided by EADS Astrium. First-MOVE was to test their behavior in space and characterize their efficiency, provided power, etc. Due to a failure of the board computer, the mission had to be scrubbed after two weeks in space. The satellite remains in Low Earth Orbit, and will reenter the atmosphere around 2038.
