How is the NanoDragon satellite ‘made in Vietnam’ after more than 6 months ‘missing’ now?

Mr. Le Xuan Huy, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Space Center (VNSC), Academy of Science and Technology Technology Vietnam said that the unit’s engineers and experts are still trying to find the signal of NanoDragon.

“Currently, the ground station has not received information, so the detailed status parameters of the satellite cannot be determined. However, VNSC’s ground station still allows automatic signal reception when the satellite passes the station. Several ground stations around the world are also continuing to search for signals.”Mr. Huy said.

Satellite not working?

“There are satellites that do not understand why after a while people receive a signal“, said Mr. Huy. This is a research satellite, so signal loss is not uncommon. According to statistics, about 35% of research satellites work perfectly according to design.

In the event that the signal of the NanoDragon satellite cannot be received, we will still try to build the next satellites, thereby progressing to mastering satellite technology in the future.

NanoDragon satellite has 3 communication lines, including: transmission of telemetry data from the satellite transmitting to the ground in the UHF frequency band, the transmission line of control commands from the ground up in the VHF frequency band and the transmission of mission data from satellite to the ground in the S-band.

NanoDragon and 8 other satellites participated in launching into space on November 9, 2021. In addition, 11 flying objects were identified after launch. Therefore, it takes a long time for the units to determine which object is the NanoDragon.

VNSC is operating twice a day at 9:30 am and 9:30 pm at the ground station in Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park (Hanoi). The center sends satellite control commands in the VHF band to detect signals in the S band, and coordinates with the Satnogs community to receive satellite signals, of which 2 stations are capable of sending commands to the NanoDragon satellite. and receive the signal in the S-band.

The center searches and filters all data related to NanoDragon signals on the Satnogs community, combines exchange and analysis of possible situations on satellites and finds solutions with partners. .

“The manufacturing process of NanoDragon brings a lot of valuable experiences and lessons to the Center’s engineers and staff in all stages such as: design, manufacture, test integration, launch and preparation for operation. exploit”, Dr. Huy said.

Meanwhile, according to experts in the field of space, usually as soon as it reaches the target, the satellite will send a signal, maybe 1-2 hours, or a few days. Some problems can be fixed remotely, after a few days, the signal will be available. In many cases that cannot be handled, satellites become space junk.

From the above analysis, the expert determined that the NaNoDragon satellite is not working, or there is a problem. They also think that the satellite launch is not a small error, especially when we are still limited in funding and have many difficulties.

Dream of mastering technology

NanoDragon was launched into space at 7:57 am on November 9, 2021 with 8 other satellites by Epsilon No. 5 rocket. RAISE-2 was the first satellite to be released. NanoDragon is the last satellite to be released into space, starting its mission in space. Previously, the satellite launch date had to be postponed twice.

“The road to conquering space still has many difficulties and challenges, but the important thing is that we are all always ready to face and make efforts to achieve our common dream: the dream of mastering technology.” Mr. Huy said.

Before that, the micro-satellite PicoDragon (with a mass of 1kg) researched and manufactured by the Vietnam National Space Center was also launched in 2013. The satellite operated quite stably for about 3 months, continuously broadcasting signals. broadcast with the “PicoDragon Vietnam” newsletter to ground stations around the world.

After the success of PicoDragon with the goal of gradually mastering satellite manufacturing technology, VNSC engineers developed the idea of ​​​​developing a more complex satellite that performs more practical tasks. “In 2014, we started to ‘conceive’ a satellite designed by Vietnam. In 2017, we obtained funding to carry out the project “Research, design, manufacture, launch and test operation of nano-sized microsatellites” under the “National Science and Technology Program on technology and technology”. universe period 2016 – 2020″, Dr. Huy said.

Video: NanoDragon and 8 other small satellites were launched into space by the Epsilon-5 rocket on the morning of November 9, 2021

In preparation for launch, the NanoDragon satellite passed 4 rounds of JAXA’s launch safety test with many rigorous standards and important environmental tests such as: 82-hour vacuum thermal environment tests, vibration test (natural frequency test, sinusoidal vibration, random vibration, sine burst vibration), shock test and other functional tests.

In a response to the press, an engineer of the Vietnam Space Center said that the entire frame design was processed in Vietnam, due to the expensive cost, many units refused to buy foreign money. many times higher than Vietnamese manufacturing, and it took 5 years of tinkering for the team to process 5 different versions to come out with a complete version.

NanoDragon is a nano-class cubesat satellite, mass 3.8kg with standard size 3U (100x100x340.5mm). The satellite was developed by a team of VNSC engineers and researchers. This is the product of the project “Research, design, manufacture, launch and test operation of nano-sized microsatellites” under the “National Science and Technology Program on space technology for the period 2016″. -2020”.

The satellite’s name is NanoDragon, which means that a small Vietnamese dragon will fly high into space. The development of NanoDragon satellite also aims to master small satellite technology, design and manufacture small earth observation satellites by ourselves. NanoDragon was developed with the aim of demonstrating that it is possible to use micro-satellite beam technology to receive Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals to avoid collisions or combine data for tracking. monitoring vehicles at sea.

In 2019, the MicroDragon satellite was successfully launched into orbit and is still operating according to the set goals. MicroDragon is a product of the basic satellite training component, part of the project “Prevention of natural disasters and climate change using Earth observation satellites”. The satellite was researched, developed and manufactured by 36 students, who are researchers of the Vietnam Space Center.