Cube satellite Maya-2 deployed into orbit

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s second cube satellite, Maya-2, was deployed into low Earth orbit (LEO) last Sunday, Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said.

“The successful launching of Maya-2 makes me feel proud. The accomplishment made possible by our young researchers and engineers should make us confident that we can do more in the area of space technology,” Dela Peña told The STAR in an interview late last Sunday.

“I have high hopes that we as a people will be able to benefit more from developments in this area, all towards making the quality of life of our people better,” the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) chief said.

Maya-2 was deployed into orbit from the International Space Station at around 7:20 p.m. PHT last Sunday. The CubeSat was just launched to the ISS last Feb. 21 on the S.S. Katherine Johnson Cygnus spacecraft.

Maya-2 was developed under Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech)’s 4th Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite (BIRDS-4) Project.

The cube satellite was designed by Filipino scholars and engineers Izrael Zenar Bautista, Mark Angelo Purio and Marloun Sejera, who are all currently pursuing their PhDs in Space Systems Engineering and Space Engineering at KyuTech, which is spearheading and hosting the BIRDS-4 Satellite Project, a cross-border interdisciplinary CubeSat development project involving the Philippines, Paraguay and Japan.

Bautista, Purio and Sejera are on a post-graduate scholarship at KyuTech under the DOST’s Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP) Project, of the Space Technology and Applications Mastery, Innovation and Advancement (STAMINA4Space) program being pursued with the University of the Philippines.

The launch of the Maya-2 came after the decommissioning of the Maya-1, the first ever Filipino designed and developed CubeSat last Nov. 23. Maya-1 was launched into space in late June 2018.

Both Maya-1 and Maya-2 are satellite technology demonstration and educational platforms geared to collect data remotely by Store-and-Forward (S&F) Mechanism. Aboard the 1.3 kg satellite is a camera for image and video capture, an Automatic Packet Reporting System Message Digipeater, attitude determination and control units for active attitude stabilization and control demonstrations, Perovskite solar cells and Latchup-detection chip.

Apart from the similarity of the platforms, Maya-2 was developed and improved using the knowledge gained from developing its predecessor.

The DOST said there are more Maya launches in the future with Maya-3, Maya-4, Maya-5 and Maya-6 already in their respective design and development phases under the STeP-UP project led by Prof. Paul Jason Co.