The SACI-2 was a Brazilian experimental

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

, designed and built by the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE). It was launched on 11 December 1999 from the INPE base in Alcântara, Maranhão, by the Brazilian

VLS-1 V02 VLS-1 V02 was the second flight of the VLS-1 rocket on December 11, 1999 from the Alcântara Space Center, Alcântara Launch Center, with the objective of placing the SACI-2 microsatellite in Low Earth orbit, LEO. The rocket was remotely destroyed ...

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

. Due to failure of its second stage, the rocket veered off course and had to be destroyed 3 minutes and 20 seconds after launch. The name was officially an

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

of ''Satélite de Aplicações CIentíficas'' ("Scientific Applications Satellite"), but was obviously taken from the Saci character of Brazilian folklore.

Specifications

The satellite weighted approximately 80 kg. It was a box approximately 60 cm long and 40 cm square, with a circular base plate and surrounded by a metal ring, both about 80 cm in diameter. Besides being a technology testbed, it carried four scientific payloads (PLASMEX, MAGNEX, OCRAS and PHOTO), with a total weight of 10 kg, to investigate plasma bubbles in the geomagnetic field, air glow, and anomalous cosmic radiation fluxes. It was meant to circle the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

on a circular

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

at 750 km altitude, inclined 17.5 ° from the

Equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

Energy supply

Solar cells A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

Gallium Arsenide Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a Zincblende (crystal structure), zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monoli ...

(AsGa) * Dimensions: 3 panels of 57 cm x 44 cm * Efficiency: 19% * Power output: 150 W * Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) Battery Cells * Voltage: 1.4 V * Capacity: 4.5 Ah * Remote control rate: 19.2 kbit/s * Transmission rate: 500 kbit/s * Antennas of edge: 2 of transmission and 2 of reception, type Microstrip * Operating frequency telemetry/remote control: 2,250 GHz / 2,028 GHz * Receiving antenna in soil: 3.4 m in diameter The spin-stabilized spacecraft carried two

S-band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the convention ...

communication links (a 2W, 256 kb/ s downlink and 19.2 kbit/s uplink), and a 48 MB solid state data recorder. It is variously reported to have cost between

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

800,000 and US$1.7 million.

References

External links

SACI-2
in Gunter's Space Page. Spacecraft launched in 1999 Satellite launch failures {{Brazil-spacecraft-stub

Specifications

Energy supply

See also

References

External links