Three years have passed since the launch of Saocom 1-B, the Argentine-made observation satellite put into orbit at the end of August 2020 by the National Commission for Space Activities (Conae). Currently, as a complement to 1-A (launched two years earlier), The cosmic artifact is fundamental in the detection and reporting of drinking water leaks in five provinces that are part of the Pampas region. It also provides services to the public and private productive sector in agricultural management. A milestone that exhibits the potential of the domestic scientific and technological system to send its native developments into space.
“Three years on, we are becoming increasingly aware of the effort and challenge that launching a satellite meant in the midst of a pandemic, but also because together with 1-A they are working perfectly. Every day that passes we are adding more functionalities and services; I am referring to both the detection of leaks in the drinking water networks and the provision of sensitive information on the exploitation of lithium and the mapping of the salt flats.. Applications that were not planned from the beginning and today are running without problems”, says Raul Kulichevsky, Executive and Technical Director of Conae. A development that also serves to prevent, monitor, mitigate and evaluate natural or man-made catastrophes; as well as to obtain displacement maps of glaciers, slopes and heights.
Thanks to the Saocom mission, it is possible to make soil moisture maps and, in this line, advance in more effective water management. When the leaks are identified, it is possible to notify the companies that manage the arrival of the resource to the fields and cities to ensure that the minimum possible amount is wasted. A key aspect if one takes into account that it is a resource that is as valuable as it is scarce and that, according to estimates, there are losses worldwide that reach 30 percent. It is worth noting what happened recently in Uruguay, with the drought of the San Severino dam and its scarcity that prevented basic activities such as consumption, hygiene and daily cleaning.
In this framework, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries At the national level, CONAE is working to calculate the area of the national territory in which irrigated agriculture is produced. From satellite observation, it is possible to contribute to improving production according to the crops in question, to the extent that it provides data on when it is convenient to harvest, what pests bother and what fertilizers are used. As in other areas, having the opportunity to plan — based on models adjusted to reality — leads to avoiding future investment losses.
How radar works
Saocom has synthetic aperture radar that operates in the L-band microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. What does it imply? Its main advantage is that It has its own power source and, in fact, does not require light to obtain images. As a result, the appliance can function effectively regardless of weather conditions, day or night.
Radar emits a signal from its antenna, the wave travels at the speed of light, passes through clouds, bounces off the ground, and some of that residual energy returns to the radar. Then, the information is digitized and, from the Conae base in Córdoba, the data is downloaded from processors that result in images. Data that is generated based on the demand made by the institutions involved in the project, such as the National Water Institute or INTA, among others.
conquer the sky
The Saocom 1-B has the same characteristics as its predecessor, the 1-A, which had been sent into space in 2018. Both began to be built and promoted during the government of Cristina Fernández, based on a policy of access to space that aimed to consolidate sovereignty beyond the realm of the visible.
As a result, they thought, designed and manufactured Argentine technologies made for the benefit of the Argentine population. Suffice it to point out that in the mission, the CONAE experts worked together with Invap (main contractor), the public firm Veng, the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and the UNLP GEMA Laboratory; no less than 80 technology companies and institutions of the country’s scientific and technological system and a total of 900 researchers committed their efforts.
It is worth noting that the articulation was not only between local institutions, since the mission is part of a more ambitious program: the Italo-Argentine System of Satellites for Emergency Management (SIASGE). Both nations assumed the commitment to form a constellation of six satellites and it was successfully achieved.
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