Diwata-2 or Diwata-2B is a Philippine microsatellite launched on October 29, 2018. It is the first satellite launched under the STAMINA4Space program.

Development

The satellite was developed by 11 scholars under the Philippine Department of Science and Technology (DOST), in cooperation with the

Tohoku University , or is a Japanese national university located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan. It is informally referred to as . Established in 1907, it was the third Imperial University in Japan and among the first three Designated National ...

and

Hokkaido University , or , is a Japanese national university in Sapporo, Hokkaido. It was the fifth Imperial University in Japan, which were established to be the nation's finest institutions of higher education or research. Hokkaido University is considered ...

in contrast to 9 DOST scholars who worked with

Diwata-1 Diwata-1 also known as PHL-Microsat-1 was a Philippine microsatellite launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 23, 2016, and was deployed into orbit from the ISS on April 27, 2016. It was the first Philippine microsatellite an ...

, Diwata-2's predecessor. Unlike its predecessor, Diwata-2 takes advantage of radio communication technology by carrying an amateur radio payload for disaster relief purposes. The satellite also hosts all embedded features of its predecessor. The planning phase of the Diwata-2's development includes a simulation model, a mechanical test model, an engineering model and a flight model. This stage ended with the flight model which was completed on August 29, 2018, and was handed over to the

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

(JAXA) on the following day.

Instruments

Weighing , Diwata-2 hosts an amateur radio payload which will enable people in the Philippines to relay messages through ham radio to any part of the country. This function is meant for disaster relief operations. The satellite will also carry Spaceborne Multispectral Imager (SMI) with liquid crystal tunable filter (LCTF) for environmental monitoring, and a high precision telescope (HPT) for rapid post-disaster assessment. Compared to Diwata-1 which hosted wide and middle field cameras, Diwata-2 will host enhanced resolution cameras. The SMI, is equipped with an upgraded enhanced spatial resolution camera allowing the satellite to produce sharper images than the Diwata-1. It will also have deployable solar panels to power the satellite's payloads.

Launch and mission

The satellite was targeted by the DOST to be deployed as early as the second quarter of 2018. The projected launch date was later adjusted at least twice; June 2018 and later pushed forward to fourth quarter of 2018. It was announced that on October 26, 2018, the satellite would be launched to space via the

H-IIA H-IIA (H-2A) is an active expendable launch system operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. These liquid fuel rockets have been used to launch satellites into geostationary orbit; lunar or ...

from Japan at the

Tanegashima Space Center The (TNSC) is the largest rocket-launch complex in Japan with a total area of about 9.7 square kilometers. It is located on the southeast coast of Tanegashima, an island approximately south of Kyushu. It was established in 1969 when the ...

at around 13:08 and 13:20 ( JST). Unlike

, Diwata-2 will be directly deployed from the rocket that will carry it from space and not from the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

like its predecessor. The satellite, which piggybacked on the bigger Japanese satellite Gosat-2 will be propelled to an elevation of above sea level. On October 29, 2018, the satellite was launched directly into orbit at 13:51 (

UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with ...

). Communication between the satellite and the DOST-ASTI's ground station in Quezon City was first established on October 29 at 21:52 (

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...

). Diwata-2 will have the same mission as its predecessor,

. It has a

sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

having been equipped with an experimental sun sensor which would allow the operators to determine the position of the satellite in respective to the sun and it will orbit at an altitude of above sea level. It will also have a fixed visit interval time unlike its predecessor, meaning it will hover above the same position on Earth for every 16 days. The satellite has a projected life expectancy of five years. Diwata-2 carries an amateur radio payload and was designated as PO-101 by

AMSAT AMSAT is a name for amateur radio satellite organizations worldwide, but in particular the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) with headquarters at Washington, D.C. AMSAT organizations design, build, arrange launches for, and then opera ...

. It is designated with the amateur call sign DW4TA by the National Telecommunications Commission of the Philippines.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2018 Earth imaging satellites Satellites of the Philippines 2018 in the Philippines Spacecraft launched in 2018 Spacecraft launched by H-II rockets Amateur radio satellites STAMINA4Space program

Development

Instruments

Launch and mission

See also

References