Brazil finishes project for research in low gravity
Valor Econômico
Brazilian scientists, technicians and entrepreneurs will soon be able to use an easy access and low cost platform for scientific experiments and the development of technologies and products that require a microgravity environment in which the gravitational influence is near zero. The Brazilian Institute of Aeronautics and Space (IAE), the research center of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DCTA), has already started the testing stage of the Satellite Atmospheric Reentry (Sara, in Portuguese), a space capsule designed to operate at low orbit, at 300 km of altitude, for a period of 10 days.
The minimum influence of the gravitational action facilitates the observation and the exploration of physical, chemical and biological phenomena and processes which would be masked under the influence of the terrestrial gravity. Such knowledge may be useful in the development of new products in areas such as biology, biotechnology, medicine, materials and pharmacology. The Sara, according to the project manager, Luis Loures, arises as an inexpensive and efficient alternative in relation to the means which are already available, such as the free fall towers, parabolic flight, sounding rockets, space shuttle buses and space stations, such as the MIR and ISS.
The first version of the Sara, with its launching scheduled for the end of the year, is being set up to perform a suborbital mission, that is, without entering into the orbit with a recovery system of the load or experiments. "In this first project, the greater technological challenges are related to the development of the electronics onboard, the load recovery system and experimentation module", explains the researcher. The second version of the SARA, which will be launched into space, will have capacity to transport up to 55 kilograms of experiments, which may benefit of a total time of 10 days of microgravity, the same period offered to carry out research and tests on the space shuttle missions.
Several Brazilian companies take part in the satellite project. Cenic Engenharia, from São José dos Campos, is the company responsible for the industrialization of the platform. Mectron Engenharia develops the platform electronics and Orbital Engenharia is responsible for the load recovery system. EQE is making the electronic system of the module which the scientific experiments will be attached to.