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Thanks to an alliance between the Colombian Air Force, the Industrial University of Santander (UIS), the Universidad del Valle, the Sergio Arboleda University and the Military Aviation School, institutions that will have funding from the Ministry of Sciences (Minciencias ) for an initial phase, in five years Colombia could have a satellite instrument of its own production (you might be interested: “I wish I was wrong in my hurricane forecast”)
The project is part of the ‘Mission analysis and feasibility study for a three-unit cubesat-type satellite mission’, the aim of which is to design a satellite platform that will carry a multispectral camera as a payload, capable of observing the territory in the visible and near infrared range and, in addition, perform spectrum analysis, that is identify the “footprint of light” that each object reflects.
The team responsible for the development of the space instrument.
It therefore intends to contribute to the monitoring and surveillance of the territory, the care of the environment and the prevention and attention of natural disasters.
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This instrument, which began to be conceived two years ago, would have been designed and built by the aforementioned institutions, which already have 600 million pesos, following a research call by the Ministry of Science, to advance the first, and part of the second, five stages.
According to Julián Rodríguez Ferreira, academic coordinator of the UIS electronic engineering program and co-author of the project, In the first phase, the satellite mission project will be advanced, i.e. its scientific objective will be defined, which, in this case, will be oriented towards monitoring activities such as agriculture and monitoring problems such as deforestation and human settlements vulnerable due to their proximity to water basins, where avalanches and other emergencies could occur.
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Similarly, progress will be made in defining technical requirements, such as the type of satellite the camera will carry, its orbit and other mission tools.
We will design the optical architecture ourselves, i.e. the type and arrangement of the lenses, mirrors and other optical and electronic components of the prototype.
In parallel, the team will work on the first steps in the development of the camera, starting from its design and the construction of a laboratory prototype capable of breaking down light in its spectrum, which would allow you not only to identify the shape of objects, but also their composition. This would be useful to differentiate the morphologies and the different components of the terrain such as earth, trees, rocks, water and earth.
“We will design the optical architecture ourselves, ie the type and arrangement of the lenses, mirrors and other optical and electronic components of the prototype. The only thing we wouldn’t develop would be the camera detector, as that involves using a technology we don’t have yet, “says Rodríguez.
“The development of the prototype is essential to validate our design and understand the operation of the camera under controlled conditions, as it must be able to operate in space, which, on an engineering level, is complex, due to the operating thermal conditions. and vacuum cleaner. The next step will consist in finding the resources to build and assemble the satellite which can already be launched into space, “says Rodríguez.
Spatial sovereignty
The biggest Sonia Rincón, head of the Center for Research in Aerospace Technologies (Citae), of the FAC, and co-author of the project, explains that the intention will be to use the “MISC-3” satellite bus, an engineering model that the FAC already has, to integrate the prototype of the laboratory’s payload.
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“For the FAC it is important to participate in projects like this because in this way we can exploit national capacities for remote monitoring of the territory and, in this way, follow up on activities such as agriculture. This, in a country like Colombia, has an added value, due to the coexistence of legitimate crops such as coffee, rice and corn, with illicit crops, such as coca ”, says Rincón.
And he continues: “We hope that, in the future, the application of this type of device can be individualized, not only to the multiple needs of the country in terms of defense and security, but also at a scientific level, and thus obtain various research products . In this work, it will be essential to have the collaboration of different institutions with which we can promote our space sovereignty“.
The five-year duration of the project includes everything from planning the mission to the eventual launch of the satellite, the launch of which would be contracted with one of the public and private space agencies that currently provide this type of service. According to Rodríguez, the total cost of the program would be between 2 and 3 million dollars.
If you get that result, the satellite would become the third Colombian to go into space. The first was Libertad-1, developed by Sergio Arboleda University and put into orbit in November 2007. The launch took place from the famous Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The second was Facsat-1, launched on November 28, 2018 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, India, and which is operated and monitored by the FAC Military Aviation School.
NICOLÁS BUSTAMANTE HERNÁNDEZ
Science writer@ScienceNico
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