Brazilian nanosatellite to launch into space next month

Brazil's first nanosatellite is now in Tsukuba, Japan, where it should be attached to the launch vehicle that is going to carry it to the International Space Station on August 16. The spacecraft is part of a project called Serpens (Space System for Nanosatellite Research and Experimentation), developed by the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) in collaboration with national and foreign universities.

Since Brazil does not have a launch vehicle, the small satellite will be launched into Earth orbit in October by JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

How the device operates is among the topics being explained at the AEB booth at the 67th meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science. There, airspace student Brenno Popov, from the University of Brasília (UnB), is presenting the nanosatellite project he helped design and build.

Popov says that the greatest challenge is to demonstrate the capacity of nanosatellites to send and receive data anywhere on the planet. “Half an hour after it's launched, the system is going be activated, making the satellite ready to receive signals from Earth.”

The spacecraft's engineering model cost $128 thousand, and the entire project had a nearly $1 million budget, including lease deals for equipment and flight modeling. “As this is a university-developed satellite the students helped build, we can't be completely sure it's going to work. But since it's a low-cost, easy-to-handle platform, it won't be a great loss if there's a problem,” Popov noted.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira