PION-BR1

Demonstrate PocketQube platform and attitude determination system.

The PION-BR1 PocketQube is a satellite that will test communications systems and it will provide an opportunity for the students from Brazil to collect and transmit data. Also, test a pocketqube platform and an attitude determination system.

The satellite will be a technological demonstrator for the solution under development by PION, designed to provide accessible, secure and reliable IoT (Internet of Things) communications through a constellation of small satellites. Also, the PION-BR1 will provide data and a beacon for radiomateurs as a secondary mission.

Based in São Paulo, Brazil, PION Labs develops educational PocketQube kits as a way of inspiring students and teachers in Brazil to engage with space technologies and to promote wider STEM education outreach across the nation. PION-BR1 will be their first PocketQube to reach orbit and achieve valuable ‘space heritage’, demonstrating to students that they can also reach for the stars.

• The primary mission will be a digital store-and-forward messaging experiment using the NGHam protocol.
• The secondary mission is to compare and evaluate the performance of the store-and-forward experiment using GFSK and LoRa modulations.

In order to support classroom and STEM activities, the project will also:

• Evaluate the attitude of a pocketqube in a space environment;
• Evaluate the temperature environment the satellite is inserted in;
• Perform data collection of a magnetorquer experiment. The project source code will be published on GitHub.