The Satélite Tecnológico ("Technologic Satellite" in English) or SATEC, was a

microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain Sequence motif, DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organ ...

of scientific applications, designed, developed, built and tested by

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian technicians, engineers and scientists working at INPE (National Institute for Space Research).

Features

The primary objective of SATEC was to test the technological equipment embedded in the

VLS-1 The ''VLS-1'' () was the Brazilian Space Agency's main satellite launch vehicle. The launch vehicle would have been capable of launching satellites into orbit. The launch site was located at the Alcântara Launch Center due to its proximity to th ...

, providing more information for future applications. The SATEC scientific satellite had the following characteristics: * Format:

parallelepiped In geometry, a parallelepiped is a three-dimensional figure formed by six parallelograms (the term ''rhomboid'' is also sometimes used with this meaning). By analogy, it relates to a parallelogram just as a cube relates to a square. Three equiva ...

with 61 cm x 66 cm x 66 cm * Mass: * Orbit: Heliosynchronous * Stabilization: By rotation at 120

rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

* Precision: 1 degree * Altitude: 750 kilometers

Payload

The instrumentation shipped in SATEC was as follows: * Solar generator: Silicon cells generating 20 W * Battery: Type NiCd – 5 Ah * PCU: with linear series technology *

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

receiver: adapted to the conditions of flight * Transmitter: S-band with BPSK modulation

Mission

SATEC, which had an estimated life of 6 months, was lost with

UNOSAT UNOSAT is the United Nations Satellite Centre. It is hosted at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), with the mission to promote evidence-based decision making for peace, security and resilience using geo-spatial info ...

in the explosion of the

launch vehicle on 23 August 2003 in an explosion three days before the launch date. This event came to be known as Accident of Alcantara.

References

External links

Programa SATEC

Gunter's Space Page {{Orbital launches in 2003 2003 in spaceflight Satellites of Brazil