The use and behaviour of radio waves in the ionosphere has long been a source of major fascination for radio and physics researchers due to its potential applications and the effects radiation can have on the Earth, such as solar flares disrupting normally predictable radio signals.<\/p>\n
Defence said the low-earth-orbit main mission nanosat, known as \u2018Buccaneer Main Mission\u2019, was launched six months ago and has been behaving well so far.<\/p>\n
Survival in space is always the main game, but \u201cone of Buccaneer Main Mission\u2019s secondary systems is the Manoeuvrable Antenna and Terrestrial Imaging System (MANTIS),\u201d Defence said.<\/p>\n
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By continuing, you agree to our Terms & Conditions<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe unique sovereign system features a re-deployable scissor arm that holds a rotatable dual-surface mirror, with a convex side for self-imaging and a flat side for Earth-imaging\u201d. To be specific: a selfie stick.<\/p>\n The MANTIS was deployed for the first time in August, \u201cand using its liquid lens for adjustable focusing, the DSTG team captured multiple self-images of the satellite,\u201d Defence said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis marks the first known successful use of a liquid lens in space, and we could not be more excited with the results,\u201d team leader Paul Alvino said, adding the Buccaneer Main Mission has been \u201ckicking goals.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s demonstrated all of its primary experimental objectives, and is currently working through its secondary objectives,\u201d Alvino said.<\/p>\n Buccaneer\u2019s primary system is a 3.2m cross-shaped antenna system that Primary System leader Mark Jessop noted was more than 10 times the length of the nanosatellite itself and has undertaken \u201cmore than 60 data collections using Buccaneer\u2019s digital high-frequency receiver.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cVery recently, the primary system also performed an on-orbit firmware update, enabling us to perform additional experimental activities and demonstrating how configurable these nanosatellite systems can be to adapt to Defence needs,\u201d Jessop said.<\/p>\n The ionosphere is no cake walk, with all manner of space junk potentially hitting the CubeSat or its antenna. The role of the selfie stick is to verify that the satellite\u2019s antenna is intact and undamaged by debris, and is functioning as it should.<\/p>\n Defence said exploration of such \u201cdeployable components enables smaller and more versatile systems \u2014 important for small satellites with tight mass, volume, and power constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words: smaller, cheaper, and lighter satellites.<\/p>\n The Buccaneer Main Mission was now pursuing \u201cstretch objectives\u201d, Defence said, without going into detail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s Defence Science and Technology Group has claimed a global first in successfully fitting a nanosatellite selfie stick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,124517,124518,124519,124520,104631,32505,124521,15048,124522,124523,124524,124525,128,124526,124527,285,124528],"class_list":["post-198769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-buccaneer","tag-cubesat","tag-defence-science-and-technology-group","tag-dstg","tag-ionosphere","tag-leo","tag-liquid-lens","tag-low-earth-orbit-satellites","tag-manoeuvrable-antenna-and-terrestrial-imaging-system","tag-mantis","tag-nanosatellite","tag-radio-spectrum","tag-science","tag-sigint","tag-signals-intelligence","tag-space","tag-spacecraft-assebly-integration-and-test"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20250918adf8691989_0001.jpg\")
Does my antenna look big in this? Image captured by DSTG nanosatellite Buccaneer Main Mission, off the South Australian coastline and the Great Australian Bight.<\/p>\n