Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Monday, July 20, 2020

Saocom’s project places local science and industry at the forefront

The launch of the Saocom 1B satellite, a twin of its predecessor, 1A, in orbit since October 2018, was scheduled for March 30. Like so many things that the coronavirus pandemic delayed, the launch of Saocom 1B aboard the rocket SpaceX's Falcon 9 was postponed, and will finally materialize next Saturday. For Argentina, the leap into these devices constitutes a true milestone in terms of science and development, since the Synthetic Aperture Radar technology was totally unknown.

The launch of the Saocom 1B satellite, a twin of its predecessor, 1A, in orbit since October 2018, was scheduled for March 30. Like so many things that the coronavirus pandemic delayed, the launch of Saocom 1B aboard the rocket SpaceX's Falcon 9 was also postponed, although the CONAE (National Commission for Space Activities) has already confirmed the new date for takeoff: next Saturday, July 25. Then the period of maneuvers will begin to place it in its orbital position, which can take two up to three months.

The Saocom 1B, a 3,000-kg device and a 35-square-meter antenna, awaits in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to join the constellation started by the Saocom 1A, and could add other satellites in the future, considering that the useful life of these microwave observation equipment, specialized in images for measuring soil moisture, have a useful life of five and a half years - at least on paper. For Argentina, the leap into these devices constitutes a true milestone in terms of science and development, since Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology was totally unknown, which differs from the more usual ones (optical ones); the manufacturing was done in the country, with contributions from public and private sectors; and currently Conae is the only special agency that provides a humidity map with the resolution that the Saocom 1A grants, only comparable to its Japanese peer worldwide.

Investment in the Saocom project amounts to US$ 600 million, including both satellites, earth stations and the modeling phase. The development of the Saocom 1A flight model was carried out between 2013 and 2018, and that of its twin, between 2015 and November 2019. Conae was originally entrusted with the needs of the agricultural sector to learn about water management - both to improve crops as to anticipate flood emergencies, but the construction involved work of coordination between different suppliers, as Josefina Peres, head of the Saocom Project in Conae, recalls in a dialogue with Convergencialatina.

The main challenge, the 35-square-meter antenna, was commissioned from the CNEA (National Atomic Energy Commission); the platform and central electronics were commissioned to INVAP; and antenna components and other elements were developed by 80 Argentine companies, all coordinated by the executing arm of Conae, the state-run VENG (New Generation Space Vehicles).

The potential of the revisit. The Saocom 1A operates in the L band, in low orbit, 620 kilometers high, and permanently revolves around the Earth, at about 14.8 orbits per day. Thanks to SAR technology (and as an advantage over optical satellites), it works day and night, regardless of sunlight, it can provide images for all types of weather and provides accurate distance measurement. The latter allows one to detect ground movements, structures, slopes and contour lines.

Lucas Bruno, VENG Ground Segment Manager, is part of the team of more than 50 people who control the Saocom 1A mission from the Teófilo Tabanera Space Center, in La Falda del Cañete, Córdoba. There the functions that control the satellite are executed and the requests of the users are received, through a catalog or interface that allows one to program where one is interested in receiving an image. This request is transformed into commands that the satellite "understands", so that, when it orbits above a certain point on Earth, it captures the data and stores it in memory. When the Saocom 1A travels over one of the 8 ground support stations on the planet, it downloads the data and then it becomes an image, used for different applications.

"For this we have to monitor the satellite all the time. It goes from a high temperature to very low, when you stop seeing the sun, so we use the different stations to monitor it. Our developments aim for the data to reach the user. Both the Saocom 1A and 1B provide two types of images: the so-called “streetmap”, with higher resolution but with a narrower footprint; and another broader, in which much information is acquired but less detailed," he said.

The potential of the coexistence of Saocom 1A with 1B is in the “revisit” on the same point on Earth. Both satellites will be in the same constellation and orbital plane, 180 ° from each other, so you can have a repetition of the same image (45 minutes after the passage of the first device), or more images from the same area, an issue that can be extremely useful, for example, in an emergency situation. It is expected that both devices in orbit will achieve 450 minutes of data acquisition per day, and that more than 300 GB of data will be processed.

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