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The five-year-old Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) has big ambitions to develop the country’s space technology and industry. It has been developing bigger and better satellites – such as the upcoming from Satellite – based on a past project of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of India.
Even so, PNSL continues to build small, low-profile satellites. The company is currently building Maya-7, the seventh generation of the Maya CubeSat. Classified as a nanosatellite, Maya weighs one kilogram, and each side of the cubesat is 10 centimeters long. The satellite can fit in the palm of your hand.
Although small, past Mayan satellites carried payloads, or instruments, into space to perform specific functions; all satellites were equipped with cameras for observing the Earth from space.
However, the CubeSat program has a much bigger mission here on Earth.
Since 2016, the project has served as a platform for Filipino engineers to learn how to build satellites. The size of nanosatellites makes them a cost-effective way to train a new generation of space engineers.
Under the project, engineers have been learning how to define satellite missions, design models, build actual satellites and test them before launch. Once the satellites are in orbit, engineers will also learn how to operate them until the end of the mission.
When the program was still under the Department of Science and Technology, it launched six Maya satellites into space — Maya 1 to Maya 6, all of which have returned to Earth — and trained four batches of Filipino engineers. Now, a new team, led by the Philippines South Africa Corporation, has been developing Maya 7 in the Philippines since 2022.
Growth is exponential
Renzo Wee, an engineer at the Philippine Satellite Corporation (PhilSA), has been the mentor of the Maya-7 team. He was a member of the team that built Maya-3 and Maya-4, the first satellites built by the Philippines.
At first, Wei, 29, knew almost nothing about space systems engineering. He didn’t know about the program until a friend asked him to apply in 2018. At the time, he was taking a gap year after earning a degree in electronics and communications engineering from Ateneo de Zamboanga University.
“When this opportunity came, I felt a little funny because at first I didn’t know we were developing satellites,” he said. But Wee found nanosatellite engineering interesting because it’s related to space, which he said is “every kid’s dream.”
Wee is one of the first cohort of the STeP-UP (Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships) scholarship, implemented by the University of the Philippines-Diliman in partnership with the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan.
The scholarship is from the Department of Science and Technology’s STAMINA4Space (Mastery, Innovation and Advancement in Space Technology and Applications) program. While building the satellite, Wee must pursue a specialization in nanosatellite engineering in the Master of Science or Master of Electrical Engineering programs at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.
As part of a pioneering project launched in 2019, Mr Huang found that developing the satellite was a difficult task.
“Everyone is still trying to figure out how to do it (We do everything according to the situation),” he said.
However, the Maya 3 and Maya 4 team members overcame this challenge by focusing on their assigned tasks and helping each other when they encountered difficulties. So when the pandemic hit in 2020, they got through it by building a system that could control the satellite from home.
“I’m proud of the team (I’m proud of what our team has done),” Huang said. “We adjusted our tactics and developed new strategies. What we did was (stick to) our strengths and (make up for) each other’s weaknesses.”
For Wee, being involved in the Maya CubeSat project has been a roller coaster and learning experience, as he went from knowing nothing about satellites to now being able to talk to people about them without having to look at his notes.
“The growth rate is very rapid,” he said. “This program is designed so that you learn a lot.”
Both Maya 3 and Maya 4 are scheduled to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in 2022.
Mentoring is a two-way street
Unlike Wee, Maya-7 engineer John Michael Rey Zamora has been following the activities of the Philippine South African company since the agency was established in 2019. He intended to apply when he graduated from the South Luzon State University in Quezon Province in 2018 with a degree in electronics and communications engineering.
“I had just finished applying for (a batch of) STAMINA4Space (participants) after I passed the board. So, I was like: I guess maybe it’s not my time yet.”
(The STAMINA4Space application just closed after I passed my board exams. So, I thought to myself: maybe my time is not up yet.)
So, Zamora first worked in the local private sector for three and a half years. But in 2022, he stumbled upon an application for the Philippine Space Administration’s (PhilSA) ACCESS Nanosat (Enhancing Core Capabilities and Expertise in Nanosatellites for Space Research) project. The project is a continuation of the CubeSat program launched under the DOST.
Zamora applied and has been working on the Maya 7 project with seven other team members while pursuing a Master of Science, or Master of Electrical Engineering, program with a specialization in Nanosatellite Engineering at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.
But just as the project got underway, the team faced a challenge: It turned out that Maya-7 was a double CubeSat—two cubesats stacked on top of each other. This meant that the Maya-7 team had to approach the project differently than teams that had worked on Maya satellites in the past.
The team is fortunate to have many experienced PNAS engineers to provide guidance. In addition to Wee, other PNAS engineers who worked on the Maya, Diwata and MULA satellite projects also provided their ideas to the team. PNAS and Maya-1 engineer Adrian Salces is currently leading the overall project.
However, this presented another challenge for Zamora and the team in the early stages of the project: among the many ideas, they had to identify the best approach.
“Have a different philosophy or a different approachabout how to do things,” Zamora said.At first, he was confused.”
(There are different philosophies, approaches, and perspectives on how to do things. It can be confusing at first.)
But when building a satellite, it’s helpful to have different perspectives.
“I understand the confusion because when you study, even if you read different books, the books give you different examples and perspectives,” Huang said in English and Filipino.
With new ideas and concepts, the Maya-7 team ultimately incorporated the best practices of their mentors in building a dual-unit cubesat.
“Actually, the good thing about mentoring is: it’s not actually a one-way street, it’s a two-way street. Because, of course, the mentee has their own experiences,” Huang said in a mix of English and Filipino.
For Salces, being a mentor doesn’t mean being perfect. “(Mentees) are better in some ways, too,” he said. “You just have to listen.”
The Maya-7 team is currently building an engineering model of the Maya-7 satellite. The engineering model will be identical to the model of the satellite that will be launched into space, but will need to be tested to see if the satellite can operate as the team designed it to.
The team has yet to build a flight model that will be launched into space.
Patience is a virtue
Like Way, Salces never really planned to be a space engineer.
He was a graduate student and faculty member at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of the Philippines-Diliman from 2014 to 2016, when he was inspired by his mentor and thesis advisor, Joel Joseph Marciano Jr., now the director general of the Southern Association for Science and Technology in the Philippines, to major in space engineering.
So, in 2016, while studying for a doctorate in space engineering in Japan, he participated in the construction of the first Maya satellite of the Kyushu Institute of Science and Technology’s global multinational bird project. Two years later, Maya-1 Launched into space.
satellite return After two years in orbit, the spacecraft will return to Earth in 2020. In the same year, Salces returned to the Philippines after completing his doctoral studies.
“When I returned in 2020, I thought it would be best to use my knowledge and experience to lead another satellite project locally. That’s when I started with PhilSA,” he said.
However, he had difficulty applying what he had learned to the Maya-7 satellite project. In Japan, he was used to easy access to parts, which accelerated the satellite construction process. In the Philippines, manufacturing companies were not yet fully equipped to produce satellite and spacecraft parts.
The Maya-7 team has been working with these companies to produce such parts. This effort is part of the Philippine Space Agency’s larger goal of strengthening the country’s space industry.
As of this writing, some of the parts for the Maya-7 have not yet arrived from local manufacturers. The team has addressed this by 3D printing them in order to experiment with the assembly process.
This test allowed the team to experience the assembly of satellite components, a sensitive and critical process. This prepared them for the actual assembly process once the components are complete.
Salces said Maya 7 could have been completed if given more time.
“We’re only going to get better. Because we have determined “We have connections (with companies) because we already have connections with companies,” he added. “We just have to be patient.”
The Maya 7 satellite has been in development for two years, but a specific launch date has not yet been determined.
For Wee, the learning didn’t stop after Maya Satellite was built. “Do I have confidence in what I’ve learned now? Of course not,” Wee said.Yes, I have learned a lot. But I still have a lot to learn.”
(Yes, I have learned a lot. But I still have a lot to learn.) – Rappler.com
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