Translated by: Nuha Mohamed
Salam Alikum (Greetings)
Today I am going to narrate to you
The story of a project and its begining
The Project of "Cube Sat"
Or "KN-SAT1"
In Sudan
It was initiated by Dr. Nadir Abdel Hamid
We talked about a Satellite
Definitely we should know that Dr. Nadir Abdel Hamid is
A doctor specialized in Space and Electronics
But it would be weird to know that Dr Nadir
Is actually a Medical Doctor
He studied and practiced medicine
In and out of Sudan
He had a passion never left him since his childhood
If we noted in this photo on the left-hand-side is Dr. Nadir
Before a while (He shouldn't hear me)
Not too long!
He was wondering, staring at the radio before him
How the radio is functioning without wires!
It was at the launch of radio
When it was operating with dry battery
He was surprised how the man
In the radio talks and broadcasts news and music
The whole stuff is portable!
He grew up with his passion
Electronics and Telecommunications became
An interesting hobby
He established a home workshop
And gradually started to work on
Telecommunications equipment
With years Dr. Nadir Abdel Hamid grew up
His dream grew up with him
By devoting his spare time to electronics and telecommunications
Until he established his private home ground station
He managed to get into communication with the
The International Space Station
That was a huge achievment to him
Dr. Nadir wrote books that turned into references
In and out of Sudan
In the field of Telecommunications
"Clapping"
One day
Dr. Nadir had an idea that came to his mind
There were two American Universities
"Calpoly" and "Standford"
The two universities put up a standard for Satellites
Small in size
At that time it was known that the Satellites were
Limited to Governmental and Military Space Agenies etc
Those two universities said "No"
Instead of limiting the space program to
Only governments, states and international space agencies
We must realize it and make it real on the grounds
In the form of a Research Satellite, small in size
Inside the University
With the participation of all the students
From all the disciplines
As we saw the sizes are too small
With minute weight
So that I can perform on it all the basic operations
That I do on the actual Satellites
The world was excited with this idea
Many individuals participated on the Satellite first design
Its small size assemblance
Then launching it to the outer space
That was a success to many world universities
Succeeded in launching its Satellites to the outer space
The first batch of these Satellites were on the year 2003
Dr. Nadir was very excited about the scheme
And said "ok" if the world universities adopted the idea
Of launching Satellites from the inside the university
With the participation of the students and researchers
With a practical experience
When Satellites' tutorials and curricula were unavailable
They were only theoritical curricula
It was also difficult to travel abroad
To hunt for opportunities closer to actual Satellites
He wrote a proposal
From 2003 until 2010, he almost toured all the universities
Until he ended at Khartoum University
At the time, the Dean was Prof. Sami Sharif and
Dr. Tahani at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering
They were very excited with Dr. Nadir's proposal
They gave their consent to initiate the project in Sudan
At the time we were fresh graduates
We were trusted with the project
While Dr. Nadir was enlightening us about the project
We were most attracted by
His dream to achieve his project
How he struggled for 5 years
Or 6 years
Trying to demonstrate his project
For universities to adopt it
The project goes on here in the country
We started little by little
With limited resources
We were aware of the College limited resources
And scarce supplies
Particularly in the field of researches
But bit by bit we established a room
Set-up our private devices
Met in that room and
Everyday we learnt something new
About the Satellites
Dr. Nadir with his experience in electronics
And ground stations
Every now and then taught us something new
We climbed up to install an antenna
We climbed down to communicate with the outer world
We communicated with continents
We never reached before
We saw countries we never saw
We saw our title displayed on the internet
"Today we communicated with Khartoum"
"We communicated with Sudan at so and so time"
For us, it was a huge achievement
Put us in great joy
While we were working on this project
Bit by bit with time
The station expanded
The devices were provided by the college
By those interested
By Dr. Nadir's contributions of his private equipment
Not to forget that sometimes we were frustrated
When your only working device suddenly fails you
But out of all we saw as Dr. Fahmi said
The positive thing in the project was
That we were still working
Still wanted to achieve something
"Clapping"
While working, we used to study the infrastructure of
Similar huge projects in other universities
Unusual preparations
Equipment, devices and materials
We used to speculate and wonder:
Would we be able to reach this stage one day?
Ok after how long?
Would we be able to accomplish all that?
Would we be able to launch a Satellite?
Or it was just an enthusiasm?
Was it the dream of an individual,
Then became three, later on six individuals
How are we going to achieve this project?
We started to communicate with the outer world
In a very innocent manner
We called entities that could supply us with the
Spares of Sattelite
Unfortunately, most of the responses were of this type:
"We regret, we cannot supply you"
"Sudan is banned"
"Accept our sympathy since you are working on a civil project"
"With no military background"
"Unfortunately, despite all, we can not supply you with anything"
Even worse, while working, it was the internal manifestation
People from inside, around us,
May be some are here now watching us
Were laughing and saying "Satellite?"
"In Sudan?"
"You must be joking"
"lol"
But then we raised the slogan of
"Yes, We Can Do It"
We said "ok". What about our dream?
If all the doors were closed on our faces
What are we going to do?
We are going to chase it till the end
That was our slogan at a stage in the project
It was not available
We are going to sit on the floor and search and
Examine other models
Research for similar Satellites
Examine the black boxes which were vagues for us
Try to dismantle it and study it bit by bit
To understand how a Satllite works
How can we achieve such a project?
Indeed, together as a Team
We commenced with basic stuff
Materials not available
"Success of the First Sudanese Cube-Sat Prototype"
That's what we achieved
We started to design
And redesign
We started to acquire materials
Not availabe in Sudan
We started to rummage around us
What was available
We started to assemble piece by piece
To exactly realize the outcome
The first design was unsuccessful
Re-design it
The second design was futile
Re-design it for the second time
Testing our boards
To observe the results we were anticipating
In desperate moments
Success was there
The devices worked
Thank God we could make it
"Clapping"
The assemble stage
For the Sudanese Satellite
Or the First Prototype, the First
Hence, comes the second stage
The testing stage or
The launching experiment
Those were crucial moments for us
How could we from our primary designs or
The from the final designs attained
How could we test the Satellite
To make it function
We climbed up the Colleg's tower
Hung the Satellite
Waiting for a very crucial moment
The antenna opened and
Sent the data
Waiting for the transmit of the first report
From the First Prototype Satellite of KN-SAT-1
At the same moment at the ground station
The second Team was monitoring
The transmit of the first Satellite data
The data was very simple
The devices temperature
The Satellite location
That was the first package we received from the Satellite
It was an euphoria for us
That we could achieve this project
Our joy was huge
An euphoria
To grasp that people acknowledged the project
It was enough for us
It was a Sudanese Satellite
"Clapping"
Not only so
Our dream got bigger
Our family expanded
New dreamers joined our dream
We all together can achieve and
Launch this Satellite to the outer Space
Hear from it the first Sudanese data inshaAllah
Not only so
We dream for future
We want to reach such places
We want to establish our Space
If not us, ... our children and grandchildren
They would say that our grandfathers could
Initiate such a project for the country
Thank you very much
"Clapping"
If you would allow me to call to the stage the Team
Thanks to Allah and to them
Come on stage CubeSat Team
"Clapping"