The Portuguese nanosatellite Eros MH-1, launched into space on March 4, established communication with Earth on Tuesday through the Santa Maria teleport in the Azores, operated by Thales Edisoft Portugal.
In a statement, the company, which is the leader of the national consortium that designed, built and operates the device, said Eros MH-1 “stabilized its orbit and established the necessary communications” at 14:54:19 on Tuesday through the Santa Maria teleport.
According to the Thales Edisoft Portugal team working on the nanosatellite, once this phase is completed, “operations and monitoring of the operational status and integrity” of the Eros MH-1, “as well as its sensors,” will begin before the first images are received.
Located at an altitude of 510 kilometers, just above the International Space Station, the astronauts’ home, the nanosatellite will observe the Atlantic Ocean for three years.
“This privileged position will allow for in-depth analysis of ocean phenomena, contributing to a better understanding of marine ecosystems and climate patterns,” emphasizes Thales Edisoft Portugal.
MH-1, a 4.5-kilogram nanosatellite named after former science minister Manuel Heitor, whom the consortium credits as the driving force behind the project, is the second Portuguese satellite sent into space, after PoSat-1, a 50-kilogram satellite. a microsatellite that entered Earth orbit in September 1993, but was deactivated ten years later.
The national Eros MH-1 consortium includes several Portuguese companies and academic institutions, joined by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US as part of the MIT-Portugal cooperation program.
The CEiiA Engineering Center in Matosinhos, one of the partners that built the nanosatellite, will process the data and images for scientific research purposes.
Scientific support for the mission is provided, among others, by the Universities of the Algarve, Porto and Minho, the Higher Technical Institute and the Imar do Mar Institute.
The nanosatellite, whose operation began in 2020, represents an investment of 2.78 million euros, which is jointly financed by the Federation – the European Regional Development Fund – 1.88 million euros.
Eros MH-1 was sent into space along with dozens of other small satellites aboard the Falcon 9 rocket of North American company SpaceX, owned by tycoon Elon Musk.