Philippine Space Agency working on 2 SATs

THE PHILIPPINES is developing two satellites which are expected to launch in 2023 as part of an ambitious space program following the successes of the country’s microsatellites DIWATA-1 and DIWATA-2, and the Maya-3 and Maya-4.

(PhilSa)

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles said the satellites are now under development by the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA). 

One satellite dubbed as the Multispectral Unit for Land Assessment or MULA, the country’s biggest to date at 130kg, will provide real-time data on disaster management, coastal monitoring, and agriculture and the other satellite called INCenTIvISe will provide Internet access and connectivity utilization of space, science and technology applications. 

INCenTIvISe stands for “Introducing Non-Geostationary Satellite Constellations Test Deployments to Improve Internet Services.”

The country’s first university-built satellites were developed under the STAMINA4Space Program of the Department of Science and Technology.

Maya-3 and Maya-4, built through the partnership between UP Diliman and Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology, will stay in low Earth orbit around 400 kilometers above ground, and will circle the planet every one and a half hours.

The satellites will be testing red, green, and blue and near infrared cameras and will take images and videos to allow collection of data on temperature, humidity, and wind speed using remote ground sensors.

Several other satellites, developed under DOST, were also deployed in space. Maya-2 is currently in space after being placed in orbit in March this year. Maya-1, its predecessor, was launched in June 2018 and it returned to Earth in December 2020.

The country’s first two microsatellites, DIWATA-1 and DIWATA 2, were launched in 2016 and 2018, respectively. DIWATA-1 was already decommissioned while DIWATA-2 remains in space.

PhilSa said MULA, will carry a TrueColor camera capable of capturing 5m resolution images with a wide swath width of 120km. It will have 9 spectral bands that can be used for different environmental applications such as disaster management, land use and land cover change mapping, crop monitoring, and forestry management. 

MULA Project Manager Engr. John Leur Labrador said the planned multispectral imager calibrated for land assessment can be thought of as having our own “astronaut” in space.  

“We can think of this spacecraft as a Filipino astronaut tasked to take images of our natural resources while monitoring aircraft and ship activity in our country at the same time,” he said. “We aim to significantly increase the land area captured by this satellite compared to our previous ones, effectively increasing the information gathered from the produced images. 

Having worked on the Philippines’ small satellite projects since 2015, Labrador said he feels privileged for the opportunity. “It’s inspiring to think how far we’ve come, but at the same time, moving forward is an ever-present challenge. However, I’m confident that we are headed in the right direction, spearheaded by this project and the multitude of space technology ventures we are pursuing. These activities will bring Filipinos closer to our goal of playing a significant role in the rapidly expanding and high potential field of space technology,” he said. (Mindanao Examiner)