- PoSAT-1
PoSAT-1, the first Portuguese
satellite , was launched intoorbit onSeptember 26 ,1993 , aboard the Ariane IV rocket. The launch took place in the Kourou Space Centre,French Guiana . About 20 minutes and 35 seconds after launch, at an altitude of 807 km, PoSAT-1 separated itself from the rocket.The PoSAT-1 weighs about 50 kg and belongs to the class of micro-satellites, which are between 10 and 100 kg. The entire project was developed by a consortium of universities and companies in
Portugal and was built at the University ofSurrey ,UK . The total cost was around €5 Million, about €3 Million paid by the Portuguese Government and €2 Million by the Portuguese companies involved. The responsible for the project was "Fernando Carvalho Rodrigues", known as the father of the first Portuguese satellite.The Mission
The mission was called "Flight 59", which launched several satellites: "PoSAT-1" from Portugal, "EyeSat" and "ItamSat" from
Italy , "KitSat-B" fromSouth Korea , "HealthSat" (an international medical satellite) and "Stella" and "SPOT-3" from France, the latter one a super satellite for photography recognition.The Satellite
The PoSAT-1 is a box of
aluminum , in the form of aparallelepiped , 58 centimeters long, 35 centimeters wide, 35 centimeters depth and weighs 50 kilograms.Over a first drawer that contains the batteries and the remote detection module are stacked 10 other drawers full of electronic cards.At the top of the satellite there are sensors for attitude and the stabilization mast, essential tools for PoSAT-1 to maintain correct orbit.Four solar panels are mounted on the lateral sides of the structure of the satellite, forming a parallelepiped, which are the source of
energy for all on-board systems. Each panel contains 1,344 cells of GaAs.Numbers
* "Speed": 7.3 km per second.
* "Orbit": 822 x 800 km, inclination of 98.6 °, Sun synchronous, lasts 101 minutes, revolves around the Earth around 14 times per day.Death
The physical death of the PoSAT-1 is expected to be
2043 .External links
* [http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth Satellites Images in Real Time]
* [http://www.n2yo.com/?s=22826 Real time satellite tracking - PoSAT-1]
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