Brazil launches Amazônia-1: the country’s first national satellite – broadcast of the launch

Today at 06:53 from the Space Center. Dhavana on the Indian island of Sriharikota is to launch a four-stage PSLV-C51 rocket with the first fully assembled satellite in Brazil – and 18 other mini and nanosatellites. The launch point at this time will be late morning.

 

If all goes well, in less than 18 minutes Amazonia-1 will enter an intermediate orbit with an apogee of 752 km. The final orbit is circular sun-synchronous with an inclination of 98.4 ° at an altitude of 760 km. A loop is 100 minutes.

Today, there are no more than 20 countries in the world where they can provide the entire design, production and operational satellite chain.

The Brazilians are using the National Earth Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS) to track illegal deforestation and agricultural activities in the world’s largest tropical region. As of the beginning of the year, approximately 20% of the protected forest areas have already been destroyed there.

The project invested about $ 60 million, which, according to Science, is 1/6 of the cost of the device if it were developed and assembled with foreign components. The launch was delayed for three years due to underfunding and delays in the delivery of units by the companies participating in the project.

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Amazonia-1 (SSR-1) – a cuboid with a large side ~ 2.5 m and a mass of 637 kg. This is the first of three remote sensing satellites that will be assembled at the same production facilities. The term of operation is at least 4 years.

Equipped with three wide-angle cameras, which will allow you to capture the cutting area of ​​several football fields. The resolution in the visible spectrum and in the near infrared is not so hot (detail 60 m, coverage area 850 km), but the authorities will be able to learn about deforestation of a particular area on the same or the next day. This will allow them to quickly transfer them to the zone of security officials.

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Now the program for tracking deforestation of the Amazon is based on images of the American Landsat (overflying the same point every 16 days) and two Brazil / China satellites – CBERS-4 and CBERS-4A (every 3-4 days).

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Environmentalists and scientists in Brazil are worried about the future of the project because of the attitude of politicians. In 2019, the local president, Jair Bolsonaro, called the National Space Research Institute’s data on deforestation “fake” and fired its director. The organization’s budget for 2021 was cut by another 15%.

According to the calculations of experts, for ideal monitoring of the situation in the region, “from 30 of the same satellites” is needed.

The launch operator is the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

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