FASat (Fuerza Aéra de Chile Satellite)-Alfa was to become the first Chilean satellite,
and has been constructed under a Technology Transfer Program between the Chilean Air Force
(FACH) and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) of the United Kingdom. The primary goal
of the Program is to obtain for Chile the basic scientific and technological experience
required to continue with more advanced steps. The purposes of the FASat-Alfa mission are
to create a group of engineers with aerospace experience, to have the first Chilean
satellite in orbit, and to install and operate the Mission Control Station (ECM-Santiago)
in Chile.
TheFASat-Alfa satellite uses the modular UoSAT bus, proved in ten previous missions.
The satellite has been constructed at SSTL by a combined group of engineers from FACH and
SSTL. FASat-Alfa has been launched on 31st August 1995 as a secondary payload, and has a
circular orbit of 650 kilometers at 82.5 inclination.
The main mission objectives of the Satellite are Ozone Layer monitoring with the so
called Ozone Layer Monitoring Experiment (OLME), Remote sensing with the Experimental
Imaging System (EIS), and Data Transfer using the Data Transfer Experiment (DTE). Other
payloads include Advanced Digital Signal Processing, Orbital Positioning with GPS
and a
Transputer system. It is intended that the satellite will have educational value as well
by transmitting telemetry data in the form of speech and low data rate signals to schools
in Chile.
- Ozone Layer Monitoring Experiment (OLME) Experiment
This experiment is very important for Chile because of the geographic location of the
country within the depletion area of the Ozone Layer in the Antarctic. This experiment is
based on the measurement of the ultraviolet solar backscattered radiation in frequency
bands around 300 nanometers. The experiment will have two types of devices in order to
measure that radiation: Ultraviolet cameras, based on special CCDs and Ultraviolet
photodiodes. Measurements will be made in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions of
Chile, and the data collected with this experiment will be correlated with the ground
based observations of the Ultraviolet Radiometric Network run by the Meteorological
Directorate in Chile.
- Data Transfer Experiment (DTE) Experiment
The objective of the Data Transfer Experiment is to provide the space segment
infrastructure, i.e. necessary hardware, satellite interfaces, firmware and software, to
allow a variety of data communications experiments and demonstration objectives to be
supported.
- Earth Imaging System (EIS) experiment
- The Earth Imaging System on FASat-Alfa will have two visible light cameras. A wide angle
camera with a ground resolution of 2000 meters, which similar to the OLME camera, and a
narrow angle camera with a resolution of about 200 meters. The wide angle camera will have
the same field of view as the Ozone monitoring cameras. These cameras will be located in
the Earth Observation Platform. They provide snapshot images of the Earth, and are then
stored on board the satellite for downloading at a later time.
- Navigation with Global Positioning System (GPS) experiment
The function of the GPS receiver is to determinate the position of the satellite in space
and use this for on-board generation of keplerian elements, using the 32 bit Transputer
system.
- Solid State Data Recorder Experiment (SSDRE) experiment
This system will provide 2 Gigabits (256 Megabytes) of storage memory based on new RAM
technology. Each system of FASat-Alfa could access this memory trough the local area
network CAN. The biggest impact is on the OLME and EIS experiments, because the SSDRE can
store more than 600 images of 300 Kilobytes each.
- Educational Experiment (EdEx)
This experiment is intended to promote direct participation in space by Chilean youth. The
EdEx will use the DTE experiment hardware to generate telemetry signals that can be
received by low cost receivers and a personal computers. DSP chips with the DTE will also
produce digitized voice that can be received by simple receivers. Students participating
in the EdEx will develop their space-related knowledge in: satellite tracking, communications, telemetry analysis, electronics, thermodynamics and physics.
FASat Bravo was a copy of FASAT Alfa, which was ordered, when the first failed to
separate from its parent satellite.
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