Athlone students make history with space launch

Past pupils from two Athlone secondary schools made history last week when they were part of a student-led team from UCD to design and build Ireland's first-ever satellite.

Gabriel Finneran from Tanvey, Ballydangan, a past-pupil of Athlone Community College and Padraig McDermott from Garnafailagh, who graduated from Marist College in 2019, were part of the historic team which spent over six years and some 20,000 hours designing and building the EIRSAT-1 satellite.

The minature cube satellite was deployed into space from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on board a Falcon SpaceX rocket on Friday evening last, an achievement which was hailed by Minister Neale Richmond as “a milestone for Ireland and its space sector.”

Gabriel Finneran, who is son of Gearóid and Imelda, was the recipient of the prestigious JP McManus All-Ireland Scholarship following the completion of his Leaving Certificate at Athlone Community College in 2016, and went on to study a BsC in Physics and Astronomy in UCD, where he specialised in space science. He is currently in year three of his PhD.

He was described this week by his former Principal, Eileen Donohoe, as “a very diligent, unassuming and extremely bright student” and she said the whole school community is “very proud of his wonderful achievements.” She added that the school was “very privileged” to have him as a student, and that he showed “a strong leaning” towards science and engineering from the time he arrived in the school.

Ms Donohoe said Gabriel Finneran is “a huge role model” for students in the school and she looks forward to inviting him back to his old alma mater to speak with students about his role in the creation of Ireland's first satellite and to honour his role in the historic project.

Meanwhile, Michael Dermody, the Principal of Marist College, where Padraig McDermott completed his Leaving Certificate in 2019, has described the former student as being “very bright, helpful, focused and understated” and said he also had a strong affinity for science and engineering.

Padraig was one of four students from Marist College who competed in the World Finals of the prestigious Formula 1 in Schools competition in Malaysia in 2017, where he took on the role of Team Manager.

The son of Kevin and Eleanor McDermott was also a member of the CanSat team from the school which defeated teams from 17 other countries to win the European CanSat physics competition in the Azores Islands in 2018.

CanSat is a prestigious physics contest which challenges students to create a satellite from a soft drinks can. Padraig McDermott, a current Ph.D. student in UCD and who is also a self-taught computer programming expert, and his teammates transformed the interior of a coke can into a miniature satellite for CanSat, with the Garnafailagh student acting as technical expert for the team. He was also the recipient of a prestigious Naughton Foundation Scholarship Award in 2019.

The EIRSAT-1 satellite which was launched into space last week by the team of UCD students was developed as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Academy's 'Fly Your Satellite' programme, and was described as “a remarkable first” for the scientific community in Ireland by UCD President, Orla Feely.

The satellite will be used for research and training and will conduct three experiments and study gamma-ray bursts while in orbit.