La Laguna (Tenerife) (EFE).- The spectacular images of the Drago-2 infrared space camera, developed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and which has been orbiting the Earth since January, are a preview of the first Canarian satellite , the Alisio 1, which will be launched in 2024 with an improved camera, the Drago-3, and an optical communications module.
Alex Oscoz Abad, principal investigator of the IACTEC Espacio project, in charge of these technological developments, presented this Wednesday the first images of the Drago-2 camera, successor to the Drago-1 launched in 2021, and talked about new projects, such as that first Alisio 1 satellite, already with a launch date, Astro 1, which will be the IAC’s first space observatory, and Vinis, a camera with ten times more resolution than Drago-2.
The act was presented by the director of the IAC, Rafael Rebolo, with the participation of Miguel Belló Mora, commissioner for the PERTE Aerospace of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, and Enrique Arriaga, first vice-president of the Cabildo de Tenerife.
The Drago-2 was launched from Cape Canaveral on January 4 by a Falcon 9 rocket from Space X, Elon Musk’s company.
Like its 2021 predecessor camera, the Drago-1, the Drago-2 weighs just over a kilo, is a cube four inches on a side, consumes just 5.5 watts, and has an expected life of about three years, in the that goes around the earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 500 kilometers.
The main difference with Drago-1 is its technological evolution, which allows it to obtain images with a resolution of 50 meters per pixel, six times more precise than its predecessor, which offers 300 meters per pixel.
This means that from the 500 kilometers high in which it orbits, Drago-2 is capable of clearly capturing objects greater than 50 meters in the infrared spectrum, when most satellite cameras operate in the visible spectrum.
This type of image allows, for example, to “see” through the smoke and locate fires that are invisible to conventional cameras.
Precisely, those first fires have been captured by Drago-2 over Mali, in a terrain where it is not possible to locate the sources with conventional cameras.
Álex Oscoz explained that in these first months of operations they have wanted to push the Drago-2 to its limits, to know its scope with the capture of images in places where without a high resolution it is difficult to distinguish nuances in the terrain.
In addition to Mali, the IACTEC camera has captured images of Turkmenistan, India, Australia and Bangladesh, different environments in which the captures clearly reflect the orography and even make it possible to distinguish the different water depths at the mouth of the rivers.
In 2024, the Drago-3 will be launched, already located on the first Canarian satellite, Alisio 1, and it will be a camera similar to the Drago-2 in terms of resolution, but improved with two filters.
And still without a completion and launch date, IACTEC is working on its first space observatory, Astro 1, which will make it possible to observe planets outside the Solar System, exoplanets, as well as primordial asteroids.
Another great project announced by Oscoz is the Vinis, which, like the Dragos, is a camera for observing the Earth, not only in the infrared spectrum, but also in the visible.
With its five filters, the resolution of Drago-2 will be further improved: from 50 meters per pixel it will go to 5 meters per pixel, “you will be able to see buses and even vans.”
This level of resolution will allow Vinis to intervene in tasks against fires, oil spills in the sea, locate water stress in crops, measure the impact of floods, collaborate in rescues on the high seas, measure light pollution, control the evolution of the construction or conduct geological surveys.
“The future is not going to be boring, it is going to be fun and very exciting, and it will be made in the Canary Islands with technology to export to the world”, summarized Álex Óscoz.
Miguel Belló, Commissioner for PERTE Aeroespacial, highlighted the spectacular technological progress being made by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, and underlined the usefulness of this technology to solve problems directly linked to people’s daily lives and the needs of communities.
Enrique Arriaga, first vice-president of the Cabildo, affirmed that the IAC “puts the name of Tenerife in the world”, with its innovation and talent, and expressed his satisfaction with the support provided by the island corporation, which will be reflected in the upcoming signing of a collaboration agreement for five years with a financing of 5.5 million euros.
The president of the IAC, Rafael Rebolo, thanked the Cabildo for its support and for the funding received from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
He affirmed that IACTEC’s technological program is very ambitious, it goes beyond the development of Drago cameras and includes satellites, mini-satellites, observatories in space that meet scientific objectives for astrophysics, but also projects for Earth observation. EFE