The satellite launching is expected to start at 11.18 am (Japanese time) or 9.18 am (Hanoi time) on July 21, 2012. To date, all the preparation works have entered the final stage, according to Vu Trong Thu from Fspace division under the FPT Technology Research Institute, an arm of FPT University, who is also the head of the F-1 satellite manufacturing team.

F-1 satellite has the dimensions 10x10x10cm and weighs one kilo. There is a camera with low resolution (640x480) attached on F-1 which has the function of taking pictures of the earth. There is also a 3-axis magnetic sensor which would serve the satellite position determination system later. Besides, there are some temperature sensors around the satellite’s body which would collect data from the space.

FPT’s F-1 satellite has passed the test on flight safety and has been recognized as meeting the technical requirements set up by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). Therefore, it has been officially accepted to join the program on small satellite launching co-organized by JAXA and NASA.

Thu said the manufacturing team experienced difficult days to design and manufacture F-1, because it has to satisfy all the strict requirements set by the Japanese agency.

For example, in order to ensure the flight safety, F-1 battery, which was fully charged before it was carried to Japan, must be completely isolated from other equipments of the satellite during the time the satellite is on HII-B rocket, during the launching and during the time when the satellite is at ISS (international space station).

The isolation must be kept until the satellite is automatically pushed out into orbit for safety reasons. F-1 satellite uses a dipole antenna with the length of one meter to connect with the ground station. However, the manufacturing team needs to ensure that during the launching process, the antenna must be kept tightly around the satellite body and it must not burst out, in order to prevent the danger to be caused to other associated equipments.

When the satellite is released into outer space, the antenna needs to burst out to be ready to connect with the ground.
Another difficulty the FPT’s officers met during the satellite manufacturing was that FSpace’s members cannot come to see the rocket with their eyes, and they had to work with the engineers of NanoRacks – the partner – via email and Skype.

Under the plan, HTV-3 spaceship would launch the satellite into orbit from Tanegashima launching pad into orbit with HII-B rocket. After being launched into orbit, HTV-3 would separate from HII-B and set up communication channels with the ground control station and ISS.

“The main goal of F-1 satellite is that it can “live” in the space environment. It has the duty of receiving control signals from the ground, giving answer signals, taking pictures of the earth with the low resolution of 640x480 and transmit the data to the earth at the speed of 1200 bit per second.

Four years ago, a lot of people raised their doubts about the feasibility and the determination of the teamwork in charge of manufacturing F-1 satellite.

However, Thu said, it’s now clear that manufacturing small satellite (some kilos) is completely within the reach of Vietnamese engineers with the current conditions. Especially, the manufacturing cost is not too high, at less than 10 billion dong, and the manufacturing duration is short, about 2-3 years.

Source: Dat Viet