The Nanosat-1B Spanish satellite, designed, developed and operated by the

Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial The Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial «Esteban Terradas» (INTA, ) is an autonomous agency of the Spanish public administration dependent on the Secretariat of State for Defence (SEDEF). It is responsible for the aerospace, aerona ...

(INTA) (National Institute of Aerospace Technology), is a

nanosatellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...

which weighs 22 kg. Its main mission is the communication between remote sites like the

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

, the Hespérides warship and Spain. The Nanosat-1B has fourteen sides, all of them covered by

solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.

s but the bottom one where the following antennas are installed: a medium gain

Ultra high frequency Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequency, radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one ten ...

(UHF) four wire antenna and two patch antennas. On the top side there are four UHF monopoles. The solar sensors and the Vectorsol experiment are located in the middle tray, being all the other equipment and experiments located inside the satellite. The Nanosat-1B covers all the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

due to his polar orbit and it stores scientific data which are unloaded when the satellite

pass Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to: Places * Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland * Pass, Poland, a village in Poland * Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see List of straits * Mountain pass, a lower place in a moun ...

es the Control Centre vertical (located at INTA, Torrejón,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

) and the mobile stations (Nano-Terminals). This satellite was launched on 29 July 2009 at 18:46 UTC from the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, launchpad 95, by a

Dnepr Dnepr may refer to: *Dnieper, a river flowing through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea * Dnepr (motorcycle), a Ukraininan motocycle brand * Dnepr (rocket), a 1999 space launch vehicle *Dnepr radar Dnepr may refer to: *Dnieper, a river ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

along with the other five satellites:

DubaiSat-1 DubaiSat-1 ( ar, دبي سات-1) is a remote sensing Earth observation satellite built by the '' Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST)'' under an agreement with Satrec Initiative, a satellite manufacturing company in ...

(this one being the main load),

Deimos-1 Deimos-1 is a Spanish Earth imaging satellite which is operated by Deimos Imaging who commercializes its imagery directly but also has distribution agreements with other entities like Astrium GEO and DMC International Imaging. History It was con ...

, UK-DMC 2, Aprizesat-3 and Aprizesat-4.

Nanosat-1B payload

''Three Experiments:'' * The Two Towers (LDT): this is a high energy proton detector, which will help to characterize the special environment within a certain radiation range. * RAD-FET: this is composed of two sensors, one for accumulated radiation doses and a magneto-impedance sensor. Both LDT and RAD-FET have been entirely developed at INTA. * Vectorsol: this is a last generation solar sensor which allows to position the satellite. It has been developed by the

Universidad de Sevilla The University of Seville (''Universidad de Sevilla'') is a university in Seville, Spain. Founded under the name of ''Colegio Santa María de Jesús'' in 1505, it has a present student body of over 69.200, and is one of the top-ranked universi ...

along with the

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya The Technical University of Catalonia ( ca, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, , es, link=no, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña; UPC), currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest engineering university in Catalonia, Spai ...

and it has been submitted to flight qualification testing at INTA. ''Two Communication Systems:'' * S Band Transmitter-Receiver: to be tested in orbit, it has been especially designed to be on board of the new nanosatellites and

microsatellites A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. ...

. It offers a very good performance at a very low cost. It is based on the latest FPGA technologies. It has been designed by AD Telecom, but developed and qualified at INTA. * Medium gain UHF antenna: this four wire antenna along with the four monopoles developed by INTA will allow communications with mobile stations (Nano-Terminals) to be performed.

Future approach

Besides their weight and size characteristics, the nanosatellites are a new concept of design for space system and a great opportunity to reach space at lower development cost and time. The Nanosat Program foresees several new launches with precise applications, as these platforms are particularly suitable for in orbit demonstration missions including instruments, components and supporting technologies for bigger Space Programs.

Nanosat-1B payload

Future approach

See also

References

External links