The space probe microscope developed at MIET went into orbit

The "Nanozond-1" satellite with the world's first space scanning probe microscope (SMM-2000S) was launched on June 27 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. A team of scientists and employees from MIET, JSC «PROTON» plant and the Turgenev Oryol State University have been working on it for several years. Since 2021 students of the "Sirius" Educational Center for Gifted Children in Sochi have joined the project.

The space satellite microscope is expected to perform research tasks: it will record data from particles on the orbits and send it to Earth. The composition and density of meteorites and cosmic dust will become important information for scientists and engineers.

The initiator and one of the project supervisors was Boris Loginov, head of the scientific laboratory at MIET and senior lecturer at the Institute of Integrated Electronics, as well as the leading engineer at the PROTON plant.
The first space scanning probe microscope, developed at MIET and manufactured at PROTON, became a payload for a satellite launched during a joint project with Oryol State University. The project was implemented with the support of the Innovation Assistance Fund (the "Space π" project) using the satellite platform by "Sputnix".

There is a polished gold "mirror" installed on the satellite, which "traps" cosmic particles. Since gold is a ductile metal, meteorites and artificial dust crash into it and get stuck. They are scanned by a probe microscope, transmitting the received data to Earth.

Also MIET plans to launch its own "Nanozond–2" satellite in December 2023 with a second scanning probe microscope.