A Uruguayan in Outer Space
The first satellite developed and manufactured in our country was placed in orbit on June 19th, representing a milestone in the national history. This is the assessment of the first weeks of the Antel-SAT by its main protagonists
Right now, a 10 x 10 x 10 cm satellite is orbiting around the Earth at almost 30 thousand kilometres per hour. Each minute, it sends radio signals to tell humans about its condition: if its batteries are loaded or not, if any of the modules is not working properly, among other things. It is able to operate in extreme temperatures from -30°C to 80°C, when hit by the sun. The satellite completes the orbit around the world in 100 minutes, although it only crosses its home, Uruguay, two or three times.
The Antel-SAT is Uruguay´s first satellite. On June 19th, it was launched into outer space from a Russian base, on a rocket carrying 37 satellites from 17 nations. It was the first trip to the outer space for Uruguay, which has not sent people yet but now has a national representative on the cosmos.
Engineer Juan Pechiar, who led the project from Fing, agreed that this “innovative way” of working together with a company is an aspect worth mentioning. He also remarked that he “learned tons of things” throughout the project, in which they chose the slow lane: do everything here as far as possible,” he said.
All in all, knowledge created by the project remained in the country, as well as the capacity to carry out something that was never done before in Uruguay. That is “more than a good result” said the engineer, who also stated that the country “entered the club of those which launched objects into the space”.
Images
The satellite also has more practical applications. Indeed, Antel-SAT was not developed to take pictures from the space. However, images are still something tangible for Uruguayans.
Pechiar said they are expecting the first pictures in low resolution “in the next few days”. But, today, Antel-SAT cameras are off. Indeed, the satellite´s aerials are not heading towards the Earth yet.
The process takes time. When the object “is born” in space only the minimal functions are activated such as the emission of markers. These allow to check up the data of the conditions of the satellite.
The engineer said that now they are testing different modules of Antel-SAT which are enabled once they test these have no faults. If these were activated without testing them first and these were broken, it could provoke a short-circuit destroying the satellite, he said. “It is not as easy as sending an SMS,” Pechiar stated, who said it is necessary to “learn the exact behaviour of the satellite”.
Moreover, the space environment is “more violent”, due to the extreme temperatures and cosmic radiation, which could affect the whole software of the satellite.
Still, Antel-SAT is prepared, with double security for each function. For Cosse, this is a “healthy paranoia” which implies “a precedent in the way of thinking”.
Applications
The use of the camera will have a huge impact on the farmland. For example, combining the colour camera with the infrared one will enable to know the green index of crops, indicating the level of hydration which tells about the condition of them and helps preventing fires.
It can also be applied to meteorology, as cameras will enable to see and characterize storms, tropical hurricane, clouds, rain and measure humidity.
According to Cosse, in a few months images will be available to be used in different projects by educational institutions.
Talking to Antel-SAT
It is simple. Once the satellite uses a radio frequency assigned to the service of amateur radio operators these who are more than three million around the world, can have direct line with the special object.
These frequencies are public, international and free, and enable amateur radio operators to download the telemetry of the satellite, using it as a replay of data package (i.e. to follow the location of an object on Earth or send a message to stations in other parts of the world), and even give instructions from the distance.
Antel-SAT sends two markers every minute. These sound like an electronic noise, which does not make sense to the human ear.
The satellite transmits in telegraphy and in data mode. In the first case, if the amateur radio operator knows Morse code, he/she just have to listen and write down. However, in both cases it needs to decode the message and understand what the satellite is saying so it is necessary to know the code of Antel-SAT, created by Fing.
Antel-SAT telemetry can be downloaded by Uruguayans and people from all over the world. That is the main advantage of using free radio frequencies: while other people are downloading the report of the satellite, Fing and Antel can get to know the status of its creation at all times, no matter which country is orbiting, said Martínez. Antel-SAT´s aim is mainly experimental, not commercial, so it made more sense to use a public frequency, he added.
Soon, Fing will enable two Antel-SAT public services, which will enable amateur radio operators to send telecommands to the satellite, such as taking colour pictures and sending them and the relay function of the satellite which enables to “listen” data packages sent from the Earth, retransmitting them and then sending them to a land station, which also listens to them and automatically uploads them to the Internet. The message can be text, picture, video o telegraphy.
How to Understand a Satellite
From the radio station, in a small room of his house in Montevideo, Horacio Rasetti is watching the journey of the Antel-SAT on a screen. He has been an amateur radio operator for more than 20 years and he also follows satellites.
“Any amateur radio operator authorized by the Regulatory Unit of Services in Communication” after taking a free exam (Ursec) can communicate with satellites. Actually, engineers from Fing themselves had to take the exam. Frequencies used by Antel-SAT were granted by Ursec and that is why its indicative is: “CX1SAT”.
“Contrary to what many may think, radio ham evolves with technological changes. Antel-SAT is a clear proof of it,” said Martínez.
