SCD ''Satélite de Coleta de Dados'' (SCD, Portuguese for "Data-Collecting Satellite") is a series of

satellites A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scientif ...

developed in Brazil.

SCD-1

The first one, SCD-1, was launched on February 9, 1993. It was the first satellite designed, developed, and assembled entirely in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It remains in operation to this date, and as such it is the only autonomous spacecraft in continuous operation in Earth orbit for more than thirty years. SCD-1 was designed, developed, built, and tested by Brazilian scientists, engineers, and technicians working at National Institute of Space Research and in Brazilian industries. It was made to be launched with a Brazilian rocket in 1989. Once it was officially recognized that the rocket could not be completed until many years later, SCD-1, after undergoing minor adaptations, was finally launched with a

Pegasus rocket Pegasus is an Air launch to orbit, air-launched launch vehicle, multistage rocket developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) and later built and launched by Northrop Grumman. Pegasus is the world's first privately developed orbital laun ...

made by

Orbital Sciences Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

. The rocket was launched from a

B-52 The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Ai ...

airplane while flying over the Atlantic Ocean. SCD-1 is an experimental communication satellite with an environmental mission. It receives data collected on the ground or at sea by hundreds of automatic data-collecting platforms (DCPs) and retransmits all the information in a combined real-time signal back to tracking stations on Earth. Applications include hydrology, meteorology, and monitoring of the environment in general. The data are used by agencies such as the Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies Center ( Centro de Previsão do Tempo e Estudos Climáticos—CPTEC), hydroelectric power managers, and both private and governmental institutions with many different interests. An example is

meteorological Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agriculture ...

and environmental data collected in the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

region, including the levels of

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...

and

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

in the atmosphere. These data are transmitted to INPE and are used for monitoring

forest fire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire ( in Australia), dese ...

s. SCD-1 weighs approximately 110 kg and goes around the Earth every 100 minutes on a nearly circular orbit at about 760 km altitude. The inclination of the orbit with respect to the plane of the equator is 25 degrees, providing excellent coverage of equatorial, tropical, and subtropical regions (up to about 35 degrees of latitude) around the world. The spin-stabilized spacecraft has the shape of an octagonal prism, with a diameter of 1 meter and a height near 70 cm without the antennas that are mounted on both base surfaces. It was originally designed for a life of one year with 80% probability, but it has survived 30 years in operation (as of 2023) without any crippling functional failure. However, since its chemical (nickel-cadmium) batteries are now completely run down, the satellite can no longer be used while it is in the Earth's shadow. After the buzz of the

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...

spacecraft flyby of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

in July 2015, revealing feature and characteristics on

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

, the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

(IAU) will scan an area on the surface of Pluto, which possibly will be named after the Sátelite Coleta de Dados (SCD-1), as “ Coleta de Dados”, located in the large Tombaugh Regio, inside the area

Sputnik Planitia Sputnik Planitia (formerly Sputnik Planum) is a large, partially glaciated basin on Pluto. About in size, Sputnik Planitia is partially submerged in large, bright glaciers of solid nitrogen, nitrogen ice. Named after Earth's first artificial s ...

. More than thirty companies were involved in the production of the SCD-1, with INPE itself providing much of the electronics.

SCD-2A

SCD-2A (Satélite de Coleta de Dados 2A in Portuguese) was a

ian data collection satellite that was fully designed, built, and qualified in

. SCD-2A was almost identical to SCD-2, which was successfully launched in 1998. SCD-2A was lost in the inaugural launch of the Brazilian rocket

VLS-1 The ''VLS-1'' () was the Brazilian Space Agency's main satellite launch vehicle. The launch vehicle would have been capable of launching satellites into orbit. The launch site was located at the Alcântara Launch Center due to its proximity to th ...

in 1997. SCD-2A was launched on November 2, 1997, by means of a VLS-1 rocket from the Alcântara Launch Center in the state of

Maranhão Maranhão () is a States of Brazil, state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of and it is divided into 217 municipalities. Clockwise from north, it ...

, Brazil. It had a mass of 115 kilograms. The satellite was lost due to an ignition failure in one of the first-stage thrusters during the first few seconds of flight, which required activation of the vehicle's self-destruct command.

SCD-2

SCD-2 has the function to collect the environmental data to be later picked up by tracer stations and be distributed to organizations and to various users. SCD-2 was launched on October 23, 1998, by a

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

rocket, that was transported under the wing of a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, that launched it from 13 km altitude. It is the second satellite of MECB - Complete Brazilian Space Mission - program developed by INPE. Its solar panels were built with technology developed in

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

, in partnership with the project team of the satellite's power subsystem by INPE. On its 10th birthday, on 23 October 2008, SCD-2 had completed 52,807 orbits around the Earth. Within a decade, it had covered a distance of 2,365,088,861 kilometers, which corresponds to 3,112 times round trips to the moon and back (distance between Earth and the Moon: approximately 236,000 miles). SCD-2 has now more than doubled these figures, having completed its second decade of successful operation in orbit.

References

External links

Satellite page on Globalsecurity.org

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Satelite de Coleta de Dados Communications satellites of Brazil Data collection satellites Spacecraft launched in 1993 Spacecraft launched in 1998 Spacecraft launched by Pegasus rockets Satellite series pt:Satélite de Coleta de Dados 1

SCD-1

SCD-2A

SCD-2

See also

References

External links