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Ecuador will enter the list of Space Nations with placing the Pegasus satellite into orbit
La información y el contenido multimedia, publicados por la Agencia de Noticias Andes, son de carácter público, libre y gratuito. Pueden ser reproducidos con la obligatoriedad de citar la fuente.http://www.andes.info.ec/es/node/16032
Beginning this Thursday night and the dawn of Friday, Ecuador will form part of a privileged group in the United Nations—the Space Faring Nations—as soon as it puts in orbit its first satellite constructed completely in the country and by Ecuadorian hands.
The launch of the first satellite, named Ecuadorian Spaceship Pegasus 01 (NEE-01Pegaso) and constructed by the Ecuadorian Civil Space Agency (EXA, Spanish acronym), is scheduled for 11:13 PM local time, this Thursday (04:13 GMT Friday) from the Jiuquan cosmodrome, in China.
This event, of the utmost importance for Ecuador, will be transmitted between 10:30 PM and 11:30 PM on national television and radio channels, and via internet on the website:http://www.earthcam.com/world/ecuador/ecsa/, informó EXA.
During the transmission, one will be able to watch the launch of the Chinese rocket, LM2D (carrier of the satellite), and one can immediately observe through simulations and technical data how the satellite is put into orbit, explained cosmonaut Ronnie Nader Bello, leader of the project.
Náder will command the satellite’s flight operations from the Integrated Security Center ECU-911 in Samborondón, where President Rafael Correa is scheduled to arrive, as well as other State authorities to participate in the historic act.
The National Government, through the National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation (Senescyt), the Coordinate Ministry of Security, and the National Secretariat of Intelligence (Senain, Spanish acronym) have supported this project of the EXA agency.
The Pegasus has a cube form, 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters, with 75 centimeter panels and a weight of approximately 1.2 kilograms. It’s calculated to be in orbit until 2018, while the satellite NEE-02 Krysaor, whose launch is scheduled for next August from Russia, will be in orbit until 2025.
The cosmonaut from Guayaquil explains that Pegasus is the first nano-satellite capable of transmitting live video from space, as well as the first of its class to possess a shield capable of resisting solar flares. It’s also the first in its category to carry multiple, foldable solar panels. “It’s the only one in Latin America constructed without foreign help; it’s 100% Ecuadorian and, with pride, carries the phrase Hecho en Ecuador (Made in Ecuador) on its structure, he states.
The satellite was constructed in secret for almost two years with the help of a 60 person team, everyone with at least a PhD in aerospace engineering and a budget of no less than a million dollars—the majority being state resources and a part from private capital.
Náder discloses that it took him at least a year of practice with the terrestrial station, Hermes-A, where he learned to fly more than a dozen satellites, to pass uncountable hours researching, experimenting, and finding errors, to carry out tens of calculations of more than 1,500 variables, to have steady hands to solder components smaller than 1 millimeter, and to have patience to build a printed circuit.
“It took a lot of courage to construct battery banks capable of vaporizing a human being at the first error, to spend hours in a tower 20 meters above the ground, to climb hills on bicycle to do transmission tests, to have an almost demented imagination to find solutions that others would not even dare to imagine, more than 600 hours of tests, a year without sleeping well and, above all else, a lot of Ecuadorian coffee,” highlights the commander in a letter.
The effort, he says, has also included personal sacrifice, limiting family time, “but the prize exceeds that price many times over: We have created the first Ecuadorian satellite.”
For Náder, the feat of entering the list of Space Faring Nations signified that the people have surpassed their adolescence and become adults, because they understood that their survival and independence also depend on their presence in space.
The cosmonaut reveals that the name Pegasus comes from the Greek myth of the flying horse on which the hero, Perseus, gained freedom and progress for his people, but, furthermore, he tells of another more personal reason for having baptized the satellite with that name.
He explains that, as a child, after his mother put him to bed, she would put on a series of animated shows, whose protagonist was Pegasus. “One fine day, they didn’t play the program anymore and I landed here. Years after, when I was 13, again looking at the stars, I dreamed of constructing my own space ship and I swore that, if I achieved it one day, that ship would be called Pegasus.” 40 years later that dream came true for Náder, who said, convinced, that Ecuadorians are capable of achieving many great things.
About EXA
The Ecuadorian Civil Space Agency EXA was founded on November 1st, 2007, in Guayaquil, as an independent, civil organization to administer and carry out the Ecuadorian Civil Space Program, and to develop scientific research in the fields of planet sciences and space sciences.
EXA counts on the endorsement of the Ecuadorian State, through the Ecuadorian Air Force, with which it maintains a narrow relationship.
The Agency operates through its Division of Planetary Sciences, the first and only observatories of ultraviolet radiation in Ecuador, located in Guayaquil and Quito and, through the National Radiation Monitor of UV, reports the levels of ultraviolet radiation that arrive to these cities in real time, thereby providing protection.
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Sources:
La información y el contenido multimedia, publicados por la Agencia de Noticias Andes, son de carácter público, libre y gratuito. Pueden ser reproducidos con la obligatoriedad de citar la fuente.http://www.andes.info.ec/es/node/16032
La información y el contenido multimedia, publicados por la Agencia de Noticias Andes, son de carácter público, libre y gratuito. Pueden ser reproducidos con la obligatoriedad de citar la fuente.http://www.andes.info.ec/es/node/16032
