University of Victoria|Université de Victoria

Purpose

ORCA²Sat will develop and test new advancements in technology to better understand “dark energy”, and enigmatic form of energy making up 75% of the universe believed to cause the universe to expand at an accelerating rate. Operating with two payloads, this CubeSat will calibrate a number of both optical and radio observatories in an effort to reduce uncertainties associated with measurements of the universal expansion rate. These calibrated measurements may provide new insights into the nature of dark energy and the universal expansion rate. ORCA²Sat is to be developed in collaboration with Simon Frasier University, the University of British Colombia, the Technical University of Lisbon in Portugal, Harvard University in the USA, the National Research Council, and Space Systems Loral based in the USA.