Maya-1

Did You Know?

• Maya-1 was equipped with an Automatic Packet Reporting System digipeater for communication relay demonstrations.
• The satellite carried a Global Positioning System chip and a magnetometer for measuring magnetic fields in space.
• Maya-1 was built using commercially available components deemed safe for space.

Background

Following the launch of Diwata-1 in 2016, the Philippine Department of Science and Technology announced on 29 June 2017 that two satellites would be launched in 2018. Filipino graduate students Joven Javier and Adrian Salces, studying at Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan, were developing a satellite with their mentors. The satellite, later named Maya-1, was developed through the second Joint Global Multination Birds Satellite project led by Kyushu Institute of Technology. The project involved 11 graduate students from Bhutan, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The other Birds-2 satellites were BHUTAN-1 and UiTMSAT-1. The PHL-Microsat team suggested the name Maya, after the Chestnut munia, a bird about 12 cm long.

Development

The Birds-2 project began in November 2016. Maya-1 was designed by PHL-Microsat scholars Joven Javier and Adrian Salces. Javier, the overall Birds-2 project manager, served as the Electronics PCB Designer, while Salces developed the Ground Station Segment and Communication Subsystem. The satellite was a 1U CubeSat measuring 10 × 10 × 11.35 cm and weighing 1.11 kg. Construction took fifteen months.

Launch and mission

Maya-1 launched on 29 June 2018 aboard a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, as part of the SpaceX CRS-15 mission. It was deployed from the International Space Station's Japanese Kibō module on 10 August 2018, along with BHUTAN-1 and UiTMSAT-1. The satellites orbited at about 400 km altitude. Amateur ground stations from ten Birds project nations confirmed communication days later. The satellite was jointly operated by the Philippines, Bhutan, and Malaysia. Its mission included experimental testing of commercial apparatus and providing a cost-effective educational platform. It could relay messages during typhoons. Initially projected to operate six to nine months, it remained in orbit for two years and four months, re-entering on 23 November 2020.