The Satélite Tecnológico ("Technologic Satellite" in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
) or SATEC, was a
microsatellite
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. ...
of scientific applications, designed, developed, built and tested by
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
ian technicians, engineers and scientists working at
INPE (National Institute for Space Research).
Features
The primary objective of SATEC was to test the technological equipment embedded in the
VLS-1
The ''VLS-1'' () was the Brazilian Space Agency's main satellite launch vehicle. The launch vehicle was to be capable of launching satellites into orbit. The launch site was located at the Alcântara Launch Center due to its proximity to the equa ...
, providing more information for future applications.
The SATEC scientific satellite had the following characteristics:
* Format:
parallelepiped
In geometry, a parallelepiped is a three-dimensional figure formed by six parallelograms (the term ''rhomboid'' is also sometimes used with this meaning). By analogy, it relates to a parallelogram just as a cube relates to a square. In Euclidea ...
with 61 cm x 66 cm x 66 cm
* Mass:
* Orbit:
Heliosynchronous
* Stabilization: By rotation at 120
rpm
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
* Precision: 1 degree
* Altitude: 750 kilometers
Payload
The instrumentation shipped in SATEC was as follows:
* Solar generator: Silicon cells generating 20 W
* Battery: Type NiCd – 5 Ah
* PCU: with linear series technology
*
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
receiver: adapted to the conditions of flight
* Transmitter: S-band with BPSK modulation
Mission
SATEC, which had an estimated life of 6 months, was lost with
UNOSAT
UNOSAT is the United Nations Satellite Centre. It is hosted at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), with the mission to promote evidence-based decision making for peace, security and resilience using geo-spatial informa ...
in the explosion of the
VLS-1
The ''VLS-1'' () was the Brazilian Space Agency's main satellite launch vehicle. The launch vehicle was to be capable of launching satellites into orbit. The launch site was located at the Alcântara Launch Center due to its proximity to the equa ...
launch vehicle on 23 August 2003 in an explosion three days before the launch date.
This event came to be known as
Accident of Alcantara.
References
External links
Programa SATECGunter's Space Page
{{Orbital launches in 2003
2003 in spaceflight
Satellites of Brazil