Arusat deployed from the International Space Station.

• Seed round will finance expansion of Ardusat platform, enabling K-12 and higher ed students to conduct science and technology experiments in space and on earth
• Edtech startup also announces launch of an open data repository, where students can post experiment results for public academic use

SALT LAKE CITY (Ardusat PR) — Ardusat, an education company focused on enhancing student engagement through hands-on experimentation, today announced it has secured a total of $1 million in seed funding from Space Florida, Fresco Capital, Spire and other investors. The capital will finance the expansion of Ardusat’s Experiment Platform, which enables K-12 and higher education students to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields through custom experiments conducted in space or on earth.

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Two of the 28 Planet Labs Dove satellites that make up the Flock 1 constellation are seen launching into orbit from the International Space Station on Feb. 11. (Credit: NASA)

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a CubeSat! With so many small, relatively inexpensive satellites deploying lately from the International Space Station, it may seem like the area referred to as low-Earth orbit, between 100 and 1,240 miles above the planet, is full of these compact cubes. The miniature satellites, or CubeSats, conduct research and demonstration missions.

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STRASBOURG, France (ISU PR) — ArduSat is a nonprofit corporation, established in 2012 by Peter Platzer, Jeroen Cappaert and Joel Spark, all of them alumni of the International Space University. The concept behind the corporation is simple but also very novel, namely to provide cheap and global access to space in an uncomplicated way (see also www.nanosatisfi.com for further info).

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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station successfully deployed two NanoSatisfi CubeSats named ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X this morning.  They also deployed a Vietnamese micro satellite, named Pico Dragon from the orbital outpost.

The ArduSat spacecraft have pre-built experiments such as measuring the Earth’s magnetic field that can be run by students across the world. Students are also free to design custom experiments and applications.

Students of four can purchase a full week to control the satellite for $1,000. “In addition, every seat comes with full access to our online curriculum and Mission Control Center where students can learn about space science, physics and computer programming (with Arduino)—not to mention, control a satellite directly from their Internet browser,” according to NanoSatisfi’s website.

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