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Adrian Salces and Joven Javier were calm and calm while waiting for the tiny satellite they had built as part of the "Birds-2" project in Japan to be projected into orbit 400 kilometers above the Earth .
PhD students and Master's students in Space Engineering at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Fukuoka, have ensured that their Maya-1 satellite of 10 cubic centimeters can withstand the extreme conditions of his trip space.
ONE-KILO WONDERS Adrian Salces (left) and Joven Javier (right) smile proudly after launching the 10-cubic-centimeter Maya-1 satellite they developed at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Fukuoka, in Japan. Standing behind them is Joel Joseph Marciano, who is in charge of the development program of the Earth Science Microsatellite of the Philippines. PHOTO OF PHL-Microsat
Much more excited than the pair were the students and engineers watching live the countdown to the historic moment at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) in Quezon City.
At 5:41 pm sharp Friday (Manila time), SpaceX's Falcon-9 CRS 15 rocket took off at Cape Canaveral, Florida, heading for the International Space Station (ISS), carrying Maya-1, the first cube satellite cuban (cubesat), and the hope of the Philippines to be able to build its next satellites on its own shores.
Salces and Javier developed Maya-1 as part of the Philippine Scientific Microsatellites Program (PHL-Microsat), a research and development project implemented by the UPD and the Department of Science and Technology – Higher Institute of Science and Technology (DOST-Asti).
Three Point Constellation
Maya-1 is one of three satellites under Kyutech. Multination Birds Project (Birds-2), with Bhutan-1 from Bhutan and UiTMSAT-1 from Malaysia. Salces and Javier took a year and three months to build the nanosatellite
While being independent, the operation and control of the three cubesats will be shared by the three countries after their release from the ISS in early August . They will be operational for six months.
"The three will form a constellation, orbiting the earth from different places.This will offer countries more opportunities to make measurements and to experiment, than to use a single cube" , says Joel Joseph Marciano Jr., director of the PHL-Microsat program and director of DOST-Asti.
Weighing only 1 kilogram, the Maya-1 was manufactured with "off the shelf" commercial components that have been tested to be "Qualified for space."
Maya's many roles
His mission includes an automatic packet radio service digipeater, allowing him to communicate with radio amateurs used by radio amateurs and amateurs.
It also has a storage and retransmission system, which can collect data from ground sensors and record and transmit data to any terrain.
Maya- 1 can be used to send and receive messages from remote areas in the country where there are no cellular phone connections, said Salces in an interview on Facebook Messenger
Maya-1 and its satellite satellites can It can also be used to relay text messages and notices during or after typhoons when the communication signals are down.
The cubesats are also equipped with a GPS chip (Global Positioning System), a magnetometer (for measuring magnetic fields in the space), and wide angle and angle cameras narrow for capturing images and videos at low resolution.
Salces and Javier said that Maya-1 is different from the larger Diwata-1, the first Philippine microsatellite launched in March 2016. Both are projects under PHL-Microsat.
Although Diwata-1's high-precision cameras are used for Earth observation, including the capture of images of areas affected by Supertyphoon "Yolanda" (international name: Haiyan), Maya-1 "Experimental testing of commercial aircraft" and "a cost-effective educational platform" that could be used by Filipinos to build satellites.
Marciano stated that the construction of Maya-1 and its launch cost about $ 150,000, or about P8 million
Just the right time
Although most developed countries, as the United States and Japan launched their cubesats at the turn of the century, the country was "not really behind" in the development of space engineering, Marciano said.
"We are really at the right time, many countries have preceded us but that's good because we learned a lot from them," Marciano said.
"We take advantage of the know-how of other countries that are being passed on to our students." Salés and Javier plan to return to the UPD to teach and share with students and students. Filipino Engineers What They Learned
Javier, who will be returning home in October, will work to develop the country's first Philippine "home-made satellite."
They were created by the Filipinos, both Maya-1 and Diwata-1 were developed in Japan.The previous communication satellites, Agila-1 and Agila-2, were both privately owned and purchased at the time.
"In two or three years, we expect that one of the next satellites we will launch will be manufactured in the Philippines," he said. "From a satellite we can do abroad, maybe we can build two to three at the same time if they are made s locally. In the long run, these satellites can have more practical and operational applications, "he said. –
Inquirer.net by Dexter Cabalza
With reports of Joseph Sebastian Javier and Roselie Mari Villaflor ]
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