VCUB, the first high-performance nanosatellite developed by the Brazilian national industry, has passed all the tests and is ready to be launched. Produced by Visiona Tecnologia Espacial, a joint venture between Embraer and Telebras, the equipment will be transported to the United States, from where it will be launched in the second quarter of 2023 by a SpaceX rocket.
The nanosatellite has completed the test cycles at the Integration and Testing Laboratory of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), having been subjected to tests of damage possibilities, such as electromagnetism, vacuum, temperature and other adverse conditions that it may encounter in orbit.
The VCUB is a nanosatellite weighing only 12 kilograms, but carrying state-of-the-art equipment, including a high-resolution camera capable of collecting images with a detail of 3.5 meters, being very important for agricultural and environmental protection applications.
In addition, the VCUB has a data collection system in the UHF band, aimed at hydro-meteorological data collection applications, but which may serve other Internet of Things (IoT) applications in the future.
The nanosatellite will pass 14 times a day around the Earth, ensuring gains in the periodicity of image collection. being able to go from intervals of five days to a frequency of up to two days, increasing the probability of collecting images without clouds.