The young Mexicans Isaí Fajardo Tapia and Rigoberto Reyes Morales were part of the research group that developed technology for the Ten-Koh satellite after being selected by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) .
The PhD students who graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) , were chosen by Professor Kei-Ichi Okuyama to participate in this project through the International Space Engineering Course (SEIC) , of the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech), located in the city of Kitakyushu, in Japan .
The National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) informed through its news agency that Reyes Morales, a mechatronic teacher, focuses his studies on dynamics and control of small satellites, while those of Fajardo Tapia, master in instrumentation for space applications, focuses on the interaction between space weather and technology in small satellites.
During the development of Ten-Koh satellite, the young Mexicans worked alongside 21 other young people from five universities in different parts of the world .
This small, 14-pound, 14-sided polyhedron satellite , made of a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite, was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center as the secondary load of the 40th H-2A rocket that lifted the satellites GOSAT-2 (IBUKI-2) of Japan and and the KhalifaSat , from the United Arab Emirates.
The primary mission of the satellite is to test different materials once they are exposed to space conditions and observe their changes.
The second mission aims to study plasma concentrations surrounding the satellite, direct interactions such as the accumulation of charge on the surface of the external materials of the device and the variation of the ionosphere as a result of space weather.
A third mission of Ten-Koh is to test a sensor developed by a U.S. team for the measurement of high-energy particles, such as electrons, ions, and protons from the sun.
This sensor could be used in future manned space missions beyond Earth's orbit, but Fajardo Tapia indicated that his work group is also interested in studying the interaction of these particles with materials applied in the latest generation of electronic systems used in small satellites.
According to CONACYT, the satellite has secondary technological demonstration missions meant to test new technologies in outer space, such as an ultracapacitor, which could complement or replace batteries an electronic component with a large storage capacity of electric charges that could complement the work of the batteries or even replace them on board satellites.
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