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SpaceX brings Philippines' Maya-1 cube satellite to ISS

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Kristine Sabillo, ABS-CBN News

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">LIVE NOW: Hear from members of the launch team following the launch of SpaceX&#x27;s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dragon?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Dragon</a> earlier this morning, carrying science &amp; supplies to the International Space Station. Watch at: <a href="https://t.co/ZuxLDtRxxM">https://t.co/ZuxLDtRxxM</a> <a href="https://t.co/dCwmdKN0k9">pic.twitter.com/dCwmdKN0k9</a></p>— NASA (@NASA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1012667369175638017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2018</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>MANILA - The PHL-Microsat program achieved another milestone on Friday.</p><p>The 10-cubic-centimeter Maya-1, which is small enough to carry in one hand, was brought aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS 15, which made its way to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday afternoon (Manila time) for a resupply mission.</p><p>Students and engineers at the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD) Electrical and Electronic Engineering Institute (EEEI) joined in on the countdown as they watched the live airing of the rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">It’s in space! Images from the livestream of the SpaceX Falcon rocket launch. It is carrying Maya-1, the first Filipino-made cube satellite (the second Filipino satellite launched, first is Diwata-1 microsat). <a href="https://twitter.com/ABSCBNNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ABSCBNNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/GuQlLZCw02">pic.twitter.com/GuQlLZCw02</a></p>— Kristine Sabillo (@kristinesabillo) <a href="https://twitter.com/kristinesabillo/status/1012638954657419264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2018</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>Maya-1’s creators, graduate students Joven Javier and Adrian Salces, watched on from their classroom at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan. Both are Filipino scholars under the PHL-Microsat program. </p><p>They are part of the 11-person team, composed of graduate students from the Philippines, Japan, Malaysia and Bhutan, that made three cube satellites under Kyutech’s 2nd Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Project. </p><p>Before the rocket launch, the two engineers spoke to ABS-CBN in an exclusive interview.</p><p>Since Maya-1 is 100 times smaller than Diwata-1, the first Filipino-made micro satellite launched in 2016, it has different capabilities, according to Salces.</p><p>“Basically ang camera ni Maya-1 hindi siya dedicated to Earth observation. More of experimental testing of commercial apparatus,” Salces explained.</p><p>It could be recalled that Diwata-1 was created to capture satellite images of the country, including areas badly hit by supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan). </p><p>Meanwhile, because of Maya-1’s limited size, Salces said it serves as “a cost effective educational platform to train [Filipinos] how to make satellites.”</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">For those wondering, the Maya-1 cube satellite is just 10 cubic centimeters in size. You can hold it in your hand like this case. <a href="https://twitter.com/ABSCBNNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ABSCBNNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/cwK2LDQeHL">pic.twitter.com/cwK2LDQeHL</a></p>— Kristine Sabillo (@kristinesabillo) <a href="https://twitter.com/kristinesabillo/status/1012639307104808960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2018</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>Maya-1 uses several off-the-shelf chips or commercial components the team deemed safe for space use. If it works, it will prove that people can make satellites from cheaper components.</p><p>Maya-1 and its sibling cube satellites from Malaysia and Bhutan will also be used to test communication relay capabilities of cubesats through Automatic Packet Radio Service Digipeaters.</p><p>“Puwede tayong mag-launch ng constellation of satellites,” Javier said. “Pag may bagyo, may communication tayo. Bagsak lahat ng cellular service, magagamit &#x27;yun as a relay.”</p><p>Maya-1 also has a Global Positioning System chip and a magnetometer to measure the magnetic field in space.</p><p>According to Salces and Javier, they will be returning to the Philippines to teach fellow Filipinos how to make satellites. Already in the pipeline of PHL-Microsat is a satellite that is made in the Philippines. </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Video call with engineers who made Maya-1, PH’s first cube satellite <a href="https://twitter.com/ABSCBNNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ABSCBNNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/0t2wG5DYFD">https://t.co/0t2wG5DYFD</a></p>— Kristine Sabillo (@kristinesabillo) <a href="https://twitter.com/kristinesabillo/status/1012640733898027008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2018</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>At the same time, the two engineers will be waiting for the first week of August, when Maya-1 starts orbiting the earth. It should be operational for the next six months.</p><p>“It’s a milestone for us,” Dr. Joel Marciano Jr., program leader of PHL-Microsat, told media after the event.</p><p>Marciano said cube satellites are just data-collecting “computers that happen to be in space.”</p><p>“If you want to participate in future…We need to have these technologies,” he said as he talked about future plans for space engineering.</p><p>According to Dr. Marciano, the cost of making and launching the Maya-1 into space is around 100,000 to 150,000 U.S. dollars. </p><p>Before the year ends, PHL-Microsat, a joint research program of the Department of Science and Technology - Advanced Science and Technology Institute and the University of the Philippines, hopes to launch Diwata-2 into space.</p>

SpaceX brings Philippines' Maya-1 cube satellite to ISS

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SpaceX brings Philippines' Maya-1 cube satellite to ISS

Kristine Sabillo,

ABS-CBN News

Published June 29, 2018 11:58 PM PHT

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Updated June 30, 2018 07:12 AM PHT

Read More:

PHL-Microsat program

Maya-1

Diwata-1

space

cube satellite

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