Scientific Applications Satellite SACI-1
The SACI-1 - Scientific Applications Satellite currently under development at INPE is the first of a series of Low Earth Orbit microsatellites. The spacecraft was launched on October 14, 1999 in a piggyback configuration having the CBERS satellite (China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite) as a co-passenger in the Chinese Long-March IV launcher.
The payload of SACI-1 is composed of four scientific experiments namely: ORCAS, an investigation of the anomalous cosmic radiation fluxes; FOTSAT, an airglow photometer to measure the terrestrial airglow emissions; PLASMEX, a study of the plasma bubbles evolution and MAGNEX, a research of the geomagnetic field effect on charged particles.
The SACI-1 bus is composed of six subsystems: a modular structure, a power conditioning unit, a S-Band communications, an active attitude control, an on-board transputer-based parallel computer and a passive thermal control. The driving factors being adopted throughout the design phases of SACI-1 are: development of a versatile bus supporting multiple missions, cost reduction with recurrent mission, design time acceleration, mission simplification, decentralized development.
- total mass 60 kg;
- payload mass 28 kg;
- overall dimensions are 600 x 400 x 400 mm;
- conception is modular, with simple technical solutions;
- thermal control is passive;
- development of the micro-satellite shall be done in less than 28 months;
- total cost, including bus and scientific payloads, shall be less than US$ 4.6 million;
- satellite expected lifetime is of 18 months;
- payload power requirement is 30 W;
- satellite is spin-stabilized;
- pointing accuracy is 1 degree.
