The project is one of the initiatives of the Regional Leadership Summit, which also brings together researchers from Germany, South Africa, Austria, China, Canada and the USA
Researchers from the State of São Paulo will join an international consortium that aims to launch small Earth observation satellites. The expectation is that the set of equipment – smaller than shoe boxes – will form a network of sensors in orbit capable of providing high-quality 3D images of the Earth's relief, the formation of clouds and their content.
Thanks to space technology, large multifunctional satellites revolve around the Earth, making the internet, GPS and earth observation possible. However, smaller satellites capable of working together have been gaining traction recently. They allow the exchange of information with the ground more efficiently and the obtaining of good quality images.
“The biggest advantage of mini and nanosatellites is that, because they are at lower altitudes [at 300 kilometers from the Earth's surface], they have lower latency. This way, it is possible for the data flow to be done in real time, unlike geostationary satellites. Another considerable advantage is that the cost of launching a satellite is usually calculated by its mass”, said Klaus Schilling, professor at Zentrum Für Telematik (Germany) and project leader, during the annual meeting of the Regional Leadership Summit (RLS), held on May 27th and 31st at the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), in São José dos Campos (SP).
The RLS is a forum made up of scientists from seven regions: Bavaria (Germany), Georgia (United States), Quebec (Canada), Shandong (China), Upper Austria (Austria), Western Cape (South Africa) and São Paulo. The objective is to boost bi- and multilateral collaboration for the development of new technologies.
One of the agreements signed at the meeting held in São José dos Campos – within the scope of the Telematics International Mission (TIM) project – envisages launching satellites weighing around 3 kilos into Earth orbit in 2021, probably from a Chinese base.
During the event, supported by FAPESP, researchers were able to exchange experiences and plan future actions.
“The meeting gives RLS scientists a key opportunity to exchange experiences and impressions about their work. It also allows us to define what will be discussed at the 10th Regional Leaders Summit, which will be held in Linz, Austria, next year”, said Euclides de Mesquita Neto, member of the deputy coordination for Special Programs and Research Collaborations at FAPESP.
Collaborative innovation
According to Geilson Loureiro, head of the Integration and Testing Laboratory at the National Institute for Space Research (LIT-Inpe), the meeting brought together companies, institutes and universities in the State of São Paulo to boost the progress of the São Paulo part of the small satellites.
“We have the technology and the intention to participate in the endeavor, which should bring together, in addition to researchers from Bavaria, scientists from the provinces of Shandong, Quebec and the Western Cape. We brought together members of the São Paulo companies Visiona, Orbital and Cron and researchers from Inpe, the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) and the Federal University of ABC to discuss our participation and formulate a financing proposal for the project,” Loureiro told Agência FAPESP.
The expectation is to have up to nine small satellites working together in the TIM project, which will allow innovative approaches in areas such as Earth observation, scientific exploration and telecommunications. Although there are already several small satellites orbiting the Earth, explained Loureiro, cutting-edge research in the area currently uses equipment being controlled from the ground. The project envisages that the satellites work in formation, exchanging orbit and attitude information (orientation of a body in relation to an inertial reference) with each other.
For now, Bavaria, the project leader, is expected to contribute three satellites. The province of Quebec must participate in the program with a satellite, and the Western Cape, with a camera. The Chinese province of Shandong is committed to the launch site and one or more satellites. São Paulo must participate with one or more satellites and carry out the assembly, integration and testing of the formation's satellites at LIT-Inpe.
“It’s something completely new. We are now trying to coordinate communication between satellites to have real cooperation in orbit. The more satellites we have in orbit, the better. And with so many regions cooperating, it is easier to achieve this goal. There is a lot of talk about the internet of things and it is expected that 25 billion objects will be connected by 2020. However, to provide this it is necessary that mini and nanosatellites make the internet from space possible”, said Schilling.
Loureiro highlights the innovative potential of the collaborative project. “There are still no satellites in the world working in this way, with mutual control, which communicate to control the orbit and attitude in a coordinated way. Maintaining the attitude and relative position of satellites is also very important and innovative. There is also the ion propulsion of small satellites. This is important to enable the repositioning of the equipment,” he said.
Four areas of research
The RLS meeting takes place annually with the participation of scientists and companies. Every two years, heads of state also participate. One of the forum's objectives is to foster academic, scientific and technological exchanges, as well as multilateral projects in four research areas: RLS-Energy Network (the RLS-Sciences pilot project), the RLS-Expert Dialogue on Digitization, the RLS-Global Aerospace Campus and RLS-Small Satellites.
“There are seven regions of the world collaborating in four major areas that interact with each other – energy, digitalization, aerospace and small satellites – and working at three levels: scientific, business and political”, said Fiona Rumohr, project manager at Bavarian Research Alliance GmbH, who works in the collaboration between Bavaria and Quebec and in the RLS Sciences office.
In addition to facilitating the development of research in international collaboration and creating a structure for innovative development among researchers from the seven regions, the RLS seeks to help participating scientists identify funding opportunities.
“These are very heterogeneous regions that have interesting complementarities and objectives. A few years ago we made planning for the energy area, showing what each region is strongest in terms of energy, where there is more development and in what technology”, said Gilberto Jannuzzi, president of RLS.
According to Jannuzzi, in the energy section, issues and projects on smart cities were discussed. “We brought to the discussion the project being carried out at Unicamp, the sustainable campus. The work was well accepted in the discussions. There are similar projects in Quebec, for example. The idea is to learn how to manage a smart city, manage the campus electrical grid like a small city and integrate transportation [including electric buses],” said Jannuzzi.
Still in the field of energy, there is a collaboration between German and Brazilian researchers to study the impact of renewable energy sources on the environment and nature's interference in the process, as well as a multilateral study on energy storage.
“We can contribute insights from multiple disciplines. We have engineers, economists, social scientists who form a group capable of generating scientific input for political decision-makers. We are thinking about the needs of each region for the energy transition,” said Sebastian Goers, researcher at the Department of Energy Economics at the University of Linz, Austria. The economist participates in a research group on energy storage.
In the aerospace field, regions are organizing to create a virtual aeronautics campus. “In addition to bilateral collaborations, with research partnerships, we are developing a project called Mini Campus Aerospace. It is a completely virtual university in the area of undergraduate and postgraduate education”, said Mesquita Neto.
Another interest of the consortium is the economic development generated from research. "It's a forum with different regions that have common interests and complementarities in terms of research. The more there are collaborations that increase innovation, the better. By putting different teams of researchers working together it is possible to accelerate innovation", said Patrick Hyndman, director of the area of partnerships from the Quebec Ministry of Economy and Innovation.
Quebec hosted last year's meeting, which, in addition to the technical staff, was attended by the heads of state of the regions. "Next year, the topic of the meeting will be smart regions. We have a lot to offer in this field, as Quebec has evolved a lot in artificial intelligence. We want to integrate smart regions technologies also for the manufacturing and supply chain fields [ supply chain management]. In the field of digitalization, we are interested in the area related to e-government, that is, in how to implement more information and digitalization in government as a way to be more transparent and efficient", said Hyndman.