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Costa Rica’s first attempt at an unmanned space mission is entering its final phase of development of a space satellite, said a report in the digital Costa Rican Spanish-language news site ElMundo.cr.
Scientists working on Project Irazú are programming and verifying the satellite’s systems, as well as the terrestrial stations that are the final steps to readying the satellite. The satellite will be used to monitor carbon sequestration levels in Costa Rican forests.
The team is based at the Costa Rican Technological Institute (TEC, in Spanish), and is awaiting delivery of final components it needs from the Central American Association of Aeronautics and Space (ACAE), said the report.
The components of the CubeSat 1U satellite were acquired with support from several private companies, and also thanks to a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 in which more than 800 Costa Ricans donated towards the purchase of some of the satellite units.
The aluminum casing that will cover the satellite was built by a team of metal mechanics instructors at the National Institute of Learning (INA, in Spanish).
Performing all these phases in Costa Rican is vital to achieve one of the main objectives of the project: to show the country’s institutional capacity to develop a space mission.
And from here, Costa Rica may launch itself further into the field of space technology.
