Maya – 1 Ready by June 2018

Example of a Cubesat

The launch and deployment of the Philippines’ first cubesatellite or cubesat is scheduled this June 2018.

According to Joel Joseph Mariano, Jr, acting director of DOST – ASTI, the turnover to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will be on April 1, 2018. Maya – 1 was developed and built by Filipino engineers from DOST-ASTI.

Afterward, JAXA will arrange for its transport to the International Space Station (ISS) and from there launch and deployment will be undertaken by June 2018.

“As you can see, it is ready. We’re just waiting for procedural matters,” Marciano said in a video press conference at the Kyushu Institute of Technology campus in Fukuoka prefecture in Japan last Monday.

Two of the DOST engineers who built Maya-1 under the guidance and supervision of the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) are Joven Javier and Adrian Salces.

Javier and Salces were sent by the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) to Japan to participate in the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite or Birds-2, a cross-border university project for the development and operation of cubesats.

Other countries that implemented the Birds project are Ghana, Mongolia, Nigeria and Bangladesh.

Maya – 1 is part of the Birds – 2 project together with Malaysia and Bhutan.

Maya – 1 will still be subject to tests by JAXA with regards to spaceworthiness before launch and deployment. This will be then released from the ISS into low orbit by utilizing the Kibo, a Japanese experimental module.

Maya – 1 is capable of multiple missions that include image generation of the country, sending of short messages and transmission of voice communications using amateur radio frequencies. Maya – 1 is also able to monitor dynamite fishing through sensors installed in strategic areas of the Philippine archipelago. Also, habitat monitoring in remote areas of the country.