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Ñuble Ciencia Viva Brings Space Technology to San Nicolás High School Students

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Ñuble Ciencia Viva 2026 gathered school students and researchers at the Liceo Bicentenario de Excelencia Polivalente San Nicolás on 21 October. Prof. Carlos González and undergraduate Claudia Villa presented the SUCHAI program, the technical challenges of building Chilean university satellites, and the SUCHAI-4 launch. They also introduced a VIME-funded initiative in which high-school students assemble a portable ground station and receive signals from the satellite, connecting classroom work with the lab’s research at DIINF.

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DIINF Space: Students Help Put SUCHAI-4 Nanosatellite into Orbit with Critical Flight Software

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 14:54:19 +0000

After the SUCHAI-4 launch, DIINF students were behind critical flight software that keeps the satellite operating in orbit under severe constraints: limited processors and memory, and only about four passes over Santiago per day with windows of five to ten minutes. Lucas Mecías automated operations by sending batches of commands that the satellite executes in sequence, while Josué Mateluna designed the interface used to operate the mission. The rest of the time SUCHAI-4 must run autonomously, with no operator in the loop.

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USACH Students Behind the Flight Software that Took SUCHAI-4 to Orbit

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Students and academics from the DIINF at the USACH Faculty of Engineering were part of the team behind the computational systems of SUCHAI-4, launched in the early hours of 7 July. The mission, led by SPEL at the University of Chile, needs a complex software architecture that lets the 3U CubeSat operate autonomously, run experiments and send data back to Earth. The article, published by DIINF Communications, profiles the student talent that turned classroom programming into software running in orbit.

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Interview: SCY-FI Lab Lead Discusses SUCHAI-4 Nanosatellite Launch and Mission

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:58:55 +0000

DIINF interviewed Carlos González Cortés ahead of the SUCHAI-4 launch, a mission in which the department takes part. The nanosatellite concentrates close to 60 scientific and technological experiments in about five kilograms, from plasma propulsion systems to the cultivation of microorganisms, and was to be launched from the United States in early July. González highlighted Chile’s competitive conditions for this kind of project and pointed to human capital formation as the programme’s most important outcome.

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VIME Fund: Project Will Bring Satellite Ground Stations to High Schools to Strengthen STEM Teaching

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Dr. Carlos González was awarded a VIME grant for a project that connects high-school STEM groups with real space missions developed in Chile, framed by the low-cost nanosatellite programme that will launch SUCHAI-4 during 2026. The project builds a portable ground station able to capture satellite signals and takes it into classrooms. It responds to an unequal access to space-based STEM experiences among secondary students, and aims to motivate specialisation in STEM careers through hands-on work with locally built space technology and its mission operations.

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