Source: ACAE

The year 2015 will be crucial for a project being developed by the Central American Aerospace Association (Spanish acronym: ACAE), which aims to launch a satellite made in Costa Rica into space for the purpose of monitoring levels of CO2 concentration above the forests of Guanacaste.

According to a news report by Pablo Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, this aerospace project involves the manufacturing of a picosatellite (picosat), which will keep an eye on certain conditions pertaining to the forest regions of Guanacaste through the use of specialized sensors. ACAE is working with the Costa Rica Institute of Technology (Spanish acronym: TEC) to ensure that this picosat is 100 percent made in Costa Rica. According to project engineer Luis Carlos Rosales:

“The idea is to manufacture those sensors right here. We could purchase them, but we want to maximize involvement in our country with local labor and know-how. During the first six months of the year, the research team will focus on the design and development of the sensors, one of which is specially designed to monitor growth of tree trunks from space.”

Both TEC and ACAE are very interested in the educational aspect of this project. To this end, technology students will be involved in the process of developing the crucial System Required Review document,  without which a satellite cannot be launched. Testing will be conducted in cooperation with a Japanese university.

This satellite project is hardly the only aerospace initiative undertaken in Costa Rica. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, the Ad Astra Rocket Company has done a lot of work on the VASIMR space propulsion system in our country. In the near future, VASIMR could be deployed on manned missions to Mars.