Lem satellite set for November lift-off

Photo: Glowimages

Lem will be sent up in the Russian rocket Dnieper, together with several other international satellites, as confirmed on Friday by Tomasz Zawistowski, coordinator of the Polish wing of the project.

Once in orbit, the satellite will carry out precise measurements on some of the brightest stars in space.

Lem was built within the framework of the international BRight Target Explorer Constellation programme (BRITE), and was was designed by specialists from the Space Research Centre of Poland's Academy of Sciences (PAN), together with those from Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre (also PAN).

During the making of the satellites, the team cooperated with the University of Vienna, the Graz University of Technology, the University of Toronto and the University of Montreal.

Another Polish satellite, Hevelius, named after 17th century astronomer Johannes Hevelius, who served as mayor of Gdansk (then a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) is do for lift-off from China on 29 December.

Between them, Lem and Hevelius will collect data on 286 stars.

The project received 14.2 million zloty (3.4 million euro) from the Ministry of Science and Education. (nh)

Source: PAP