NEE-01 Pegasus[1] Is the first Ecuadorian satellite, built by the Ecuadorian Space Agency and presented officially in April 4, 2011
| Operator | Ecuador Ecuadorian Civilian Space Agency |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Scientific/Technology Demonstration/Education |
| Satellite of | Earth |
| Orbits | Low Earth orbit 600km perigee, 98 degrees sun-synchronous |
| Launch date | 2012 |
| Homepage | pegaso.exa.ec |
| Mass | 1200 grams |
The NEE-01 PEGASUS is a nano satellite, of the cubesat 1U class, it has a cubic shape and two solar panel wings with 3 panels on each side for a total of 6 panels per wing, its dimensions are 10 by 10 by 75 centimeters (4 by 4 by 30 inches) with its solar wings completely deployed and weights 1.2 kilos,[2] it has an on-board dual visible and infrared camera which will allow the spacecraft to take pictures and transmit live video from space, the launch into orbit is planned for the 3rd quarter of year 2012 on board a Russian rocket.
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The satellite was completely designed and built in the country, without any foreign assistance, by an EXA engineering team led by Cmdr. Ronnie Nader and engineers Sidney Drouet, Manuel Uriguen, Héctor Carrión, Ricardo Allú and Gonzalo Naranjo, the project took almost 2 years since its conception in April 2009 and the building of the spacecraft took a year in the EXA laboratory. Besides the live video signal, the spacecraft will send a constant radio signal that will act as a beacon, consisting in its identification and the Ecuador’s national anthem.[3]
The satellite will be operated from the HERMES-A/MINOTAUR ground station of the EXA in Guayaquil.
Primary mission: National Technology testing
Secondary Mission: Space based education platform
The satellite’s primary mission is to test the basic and key technologies that will allow the EXA to build bigger and more powerful spacecraft in the future and the secondary mission is to serve as a space platform for elementary education: The satellite will send two signals that will be received and decoded by the EXA’s HERMES-A ground station in Guayaquil and then uploaded live to the Internet using Twitter and Facebook; the first signal will contain text book questions and the second will contain an image related to the question. If the students are able to answer the question correctly they will be granted access to the video camera on board the spacecraft and will be able to see earth from space as the astronauts see it in their space missions. More advanced students will have access to the pure radio signal so they can try decoding it by themselves.
The satellite carries many advanced technologies which by themselves are firsts for this kind of spacecraft: It is the first known cubesat 1U to be equipped with a live video transmission system, is the first of its kind in being equipped with a multilayer shield composed by polymers and alloys that allows the spacecraft to withstand solar flares and other space hazards, it is the first known to have a thermal stabilization system based in carbon nanotubes, it has the thinnest known solar arrays for this cubesat 1U class, measuring only 1.5 millimeters thick, made of 99.98% pure titanium, also it has the biggest power matrix ever carried by a 1U cubesat with 28.8 amperes of total installed capacity in a volume of only 200 cubic centimeters.
On December 13, 2011 the contract for launching services of the NEE-01 Pegasus was awarded to ISIS Space Launch Company and signed officially by EXA and ISIS representatives in Quito[10], Also EXA signed an agreement with the Ecuadorian Air Force to jointly operate the satellite.
The NEE-01 Pegasus will be injected in a sun-synchronous orbit near the end of September 2012, in 98 degrees inclination and 600km perigee, LTAN is expected to be 10h00