The Philippines’ first university-built cube satellites (CubeSats), Maya-3 and Maya-4, were released to space from the International Space Station (ISS) on October 6, 2021 at 5:20 p.m. PST via Japan’s Japanese Experiment (JEM) or “Kibo” Laboratory Module. 

The JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD), including satellite install cases with the CubeSats, were installed on the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) by ISS crew members and is passed through the Kibo airlock for retrieval, positioning, and deployment by the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS). The released CubeSats will move along an orbit similar to the space station’s, which is at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers. 

This latest development follows the CubeSat’s launch to the space station on August 29, 2021 at 3:14 P.M. (PST) aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s Dragon C208 as part of SpaceX Commercial Resupply Mission-23 (SpX-23). They have been released along with other CubeSats from Australia, namely, Biner-1 and CUAVA-1, developed by Curtin University and the University of Sydney, respectively.

The two CubeSats were developed under the Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP) Project of the STAMINA4Space Program, which is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and implemented by the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) and the DOST Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI). Maya-3 and Maya-4 were built by the first of two batches of STeP-UP scholars taking the nanosatellite development track under the Master of Science (MS)/Master of Engineering (MEng) program of the UPD Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (EEEI). The development of the CubeSats is in collaboration  with the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan, with scholarship support from DOST-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI).

“This is a very historic and important day, because the world has witnessed the deployment of the Maya-3 and Maya-4 cube satellites from the International Space Station (ISS) to outer space. These two CubeSats are the first Philippine university-built cube satellites developed by Filipino scholars,” said DOST Secretary Fortunato de la Peña in his message during the deployment program hosted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and congratulated all the groups involved.

UPD Chancellor Fidel Nemenzo commented on the impact this latest development will make on the youth. “As I have said during the launch of microsatellites Diwata-1 and Diwata-2, this project of building our own satellites has the power to inspire students and young children to study space science and engineering,” he said. “This will help break down psychological barriers for many young and aspiring scientists. Space technology is no longer something we just read in books and see in movies. Space is no longer the exclusive territory of advanced, industrialized countries and superpowers. Space is something within our reach, especially with support from the government, and the public and our partners.”

Next steps after deployment

Now that the satellites are in space, the STeP-UP Batch 1 scholars shared that this means they can begin testing the different functionalities of the CubeSats. Prior to release, the team already prepared the schedule of activities for the ground station operations including the sequence of the command uplinks for the CubeSats. Initially, the team will monitor the satellite condition by receiving and decoding its CW beacon before sending commands for the CubeSats to perform. “It’s [going to be] like hearing a newborn baby’s first cry,” said the STeP-UP batch 1 scholars.

Simultaneously, the team has also coordinated with various ground stations internationally and locally to assist with the tracking of the satellites. Moreover, the team will record and assess the satellites’ functionalities and collect data from the CubeSats during the operations to evaluate its overall performance. This can be used as reference in planning for future satellite developments and related projects.

“The team is extremely excited now that Maya-3 and Maya-4 are orbiting Earth in space. As the first Philippine university-built satellites, this event marks a significant milestone in our country’s space science and technology initiatives,” they said, looking back on the hard work involved in developing and testing the satellite in the past 2 years.

Other than that, business continues as usual for the STeP-UP Project: The operations of Maya-3 and Maya-4 will commence once they are deployed, Maya-5 and Maya-6 are under development by the second batch of scholars, and the STeP-UP team is continuing its other activities, as shared by STeP-UP Project Leader Prof. Paul Jason Co. 

“Sustainability can be ensured by making sure that the knowledge gained from this is shared with as many HEIs [higher education institutions], as this ensures that there will be more people with the necessary knowledge to do the same,” he said. “While launching CubeSats would present some funding concerns, the knowledge about the development can still be learned without this.”

STAMINA4Space Program Leader Dr. Maricor Soriano congratulated the scholars and noted the collaborations that paved the way for the development of the CubeSats. “Building and operating something as complex as a satellite requires meticulous planning, rigorous design and testing of systems, and lots of support. Thus, we thank the Department of Science and Technology for funding our program, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Kyushu Institute of Technology for the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite Project. We are immensely grateful to both our Philippine and Japanese mentors for guiding our scholars. It is our aim at STAMINA4Space to gain mastery in building and operating satellites to spread this know-how and thereby give the very best service to our fellow Filipinos. We look forward to gaining more confidence to innovate in this field in order to support our nascent Philippine Space Agency,” she said.

In his congratulatory message during the JAXA launch program, PhilSA Director-General Dr. Joel Joseph Marciano, Jr. shared that “[l]ooking back to 2014, as we were beginning our journey in developing small satellite technologies and applications, we saw the value of engaging and partnering with fellow nations with common aspirations in space. As the Program Leader of the Philippine Microsat Program and its successor, the Space Technology and Applications Mastery, Innovation and Advancement (STAMINA4Space) at that time, it was clear that the way to go far and to achieve more in space would be to work with others around us,” he said. “It was around that time that I learned about the BIRDS project of the Kyushu Institute of Technology or Kyutech and saw that the spirit of community and cooperation fostered by the project was a good match and complement to the Filipino core value of ‘bayanihan’ (that is, of civic unity and cooperation). Different nations coming together to learn how to build satellites means that they will be helping each other, learning together through the ups and downs, and emerging from it with stronger ties and bonds that will serve them well for future cooperation.”

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The CubeSats Maya-3 and Maya-4 were launched to the ISS on August 29, 2021 at 3:14 P.M. (PST) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s Dragon C208 as part of SpaceX Commercial Resupply Mission-23 (SpX-23). Weighing approximately 1.15 kilograms per unit with 10-centimeter cubic frames, these CubeSats house components that are designed to demonstrate nanosatellite-based remote data collection systems and optical imaging. Once the CubeSats are released from the ISS, they will move along an orbit similar to the space station’s, which is at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers. 

The first Filipino CubeSats built in a local university setting

The Maya-3 and Maya-4 CubeSats are fashioned after the bus heritage of Maya-1, but with enhancements incorporated from the previous design. Maya-3 and Maya-4 are mostly identical with only difference in a mission, that is the near-infrared camera, which is mounted only on Maya-4. These latest CubeSats were built under the Space Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP) project of the STAMINA4Space Program, which is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and is implemented by the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) and the DOST Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI). The nanosatellite development track under the Master of Science (MS) or Master of Engineering (MEng) program of the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute of the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD-EEEI) is also implemented in collaboration with the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan and with scholarship support from the Department of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI).

The Maya-3 and Maya-4 CubeSats provide local opportunities to learn and acquire space technology know-how, and hands-on experience in satellite development, which contributes to building human resources for furthering the country’s space initiatives and activities. Its mission and payloads were conceptualized and developed to test and demonstrate technologies that can later on be used to provide data that may be used in a number of applications across various sectors such as agriculture, environment and natural resources, and disaster risk reduction and management, among others. These CubeSats can also be used to demonstrate technologies such as data collection systems that work with ground-based sensors and radios that serve the amateur radio community and emergency response teams.

“The success of Maya-3 and Maya-4 will prove that CubeSats can be successfully built locally,” said STeP-UP Project Leader, Prof. Paul Jason Co. “The knowledge and experience gained from this endeavor can and will be shared to any other institutions through collaboration and cooperation.”

The development of the CubeSats are part of the course requirements of the Master of Science (MS) or Master of Engineering (MEng) under the nanosatellite engineering track. The first batch of STeP-UP scholars are composed of eight (8) students who received scholarship support from DOST-SEI. They are Gladys Bajaro, Derick Canceran, Bryan Custodio, Lorilyn Daquioag, Marielle Magbanua-Gregorio, Christy Raterta, Judiel Reyes, and Renzo Wee.

Prior to the launch, the CubeSats were tested thoroughly to ensure that they can survive the launch and harsh space conditions. The team performed space environment tests of the two CubeSats and analyzed the results. Reports detailing the results of various tests were then sent to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for evaluation. After satisfying the set acceptance requirements, the CubeSats were turned over to JAXA for their launch to the ISS. 

How are Maya-3 and Maya-4 different from or similar to its predecessors? 

“The Maya-3 and Maya-4 CubeSats use the heritage bus of Maya-1 — which was developed as part of the BIRDS-2 Project led by Kyutech and launched along with Bhutan-1 (Bhutan) and UiTMSat-1 (Malaysia),” said the scholars. “Maya-3 and Maya-4 incorporate enhancements from the previous design including improvements in the antenna board. They are mostly identical, only with a difference in a mission, that is, the Near-infrared camera which is mounted only on Maya-4.

DOST-SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo commended the scholars’ success and noted how this relates to the attached DOST agency’s priority research areas. “The scholarship programs of the DOST through the Science Education Institute were designed as the government’s primary response to build a critical mass of S&T human resources that will propel us to a globally competitive state,” she said. “Providing scholarships through the [STeP-UP Project] is one the Institute’s ways of contributing to the growth of the space ecosystem in the country. Our goal is to produce a workforce trained specifically on conducting R&D activities in vital areas of space science, technology, and allied fields. With the impending launch of the Maya-3 and Maya-4 cube satellites in space, which were successfully developed by our very own DOST-SEI STeP-UP scholars, it is indeed a manifestation that we are on track in sustaining the space research and development activities in the country. The success of our STeP-UP scholars is likewise the success of the Institute,” she added.

The University of the Philippines expresses its delight over the university being home to these CubeSats. “Certainly there is much pride among the entire UP community in having our first ever university-built cube satellites. Considering the more obvious uses of these satellites such as in disaster mitigation and regional monitoring, the potential of these high-technology devices is limitless. We join the STAMINA4Space Program and STeP-UP Project in their success,” said Dr. Gonzalo Campoamor II, UPD Vice Chancellor for Research and Development. He also affirms the university’s continued support for future space-related initiatives. “Aside from the seemingly unending supply of quality researchers and experts, the University will continue to strive to support space-related initiatives, particularly in looking for alternative sources of research funds and industry partners via its continuously widening network,” he said.

A new milestone for Philippine CubeSat development

Kyutech has witnessed firsthand how the Filipino members of the BIRDS network have grown throughout the years. BIRDS Project Principal Investigator and Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Lean Satellite Enterprises and In-Orbit Experiment (LaSEINE) in Kyutech, Dr. Mengu Cho, is one of the mentors from Japan who has closely collaborated with the Maya engineers and the PHL-Microsat and STAMINA4Space Programs. “It is my pleasure to continue working with the Philippine teams,” he said. “The collaboration benefits not only the Philippine side but also the Japanese side.The Kyutech team, including students, learn many things and improve ourselves through the collaboration. Maya-3 and Maya-4 are the first examples of applying BIRDS satellite bus to abroad. I am delighted to see the DNA of the BIRDS program is inherited and evolves in developing countries.”

For STAMINA4Space Program Leader Dr. Maricor Soriano, opportunities seized in local CubeSat development yield a clear return of investment. “Maya-3 and Maya-4 built by our STeP-UP scholars in the Philippines lends credence to the quote ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’ Convincing local industries to participate in space technology development requires two things — local expertise and a clear return of investment. CubeSats are the low-hanging fruits which Philippine industries can grab because aside from being scalable, we already can train people to build them,” she said. “Congratulations to our first batch of home-grown STEP-UP scholars for this important milestone. Clearly, the mission to strengthen our local space industry and increase our knowhow continues beyond the launch. Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic you persevered. Beyond the product and expertise, please also remember the life skills you learned from your training – teamwork, clarity, grit, and self-confidence. Cheers and Padayon!”

According to Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) Director General Dr. Joel Joseph Marciano, Jr., this was all part of the plan. “When we sent Filipino scholars to Kyutech to work on Maya-1 in 2016 and Maya-2 in 2018, we committed to the idea of being able to build and innovate future Maya cubesats in our own laboratories. With Maya-3 and Maya-4 being lifted up to the ISS today, we achieve that proximate objective,” he said. “This accomplishment spurs us on toward our larger goal of growing local space capabilities and cascading them to industry and society. I thank and congratulate the scholars, their mentors, and everyone in the team for their hard work, and look forward to more Mayas and breakthroughs to come.”

DOST Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said this latest development is a “crowning moment” for these initiatives. “As a Filipino, I feel proud and hopeful that we have already developed our cube satellites locally. As a science and technology administrator, I think this is a crowning moment for the initiatives that we have undertaken, a return on investment of sorts for whatever resources we have put into the Philippine space technology development program, and a proof that our Filipino scientists, engineers, and researchers can be depended upon given a clear vision and target that we want to achieve,” he said, and adds “I commend the team who worked to accomplish this particular goal. We will aim higher of course. I feel fortunate about having our first batch of STeP-UP Scholars, who in spite of diversity of backgrounds in science and engineering, were able to accomplish their tasks within the given time frame.”

As the Maya-3 and Maya-4 team awaits the CubeSats’ release from the ISS into orbit, they  continue with the preparatory tasks for the operations phase of the project. At the same time, Maya-3 and Maya-4’s successors, Maya-5 and Maya-6, are simultaneously being developed by the second batch of STeP-UP scholars.

Details about Maya-3 and Maya-4’s deployment from the ISS to follow in the coming weeks.

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