Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite program
The Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite program is a satellite program carried by the Department of Science and Technology of the Philippines in cooperation with the Tohoku and Hokkaido Universities of Japan.
Background
and Tohoku University of Japan initiated a project to send 50 microsatellites into space by 2050. The project will photograph aftermaths of natural disasters, partnering with governments, universities and other organizations based in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Two satellites are commissioned for the Philippine government.Diwata-1 is the first satellite of the venture and is also a part of the Department of Science and Technology's Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Micro-Satellite Program which was initiated in December 2014 by the government agency. The satellite is an updated version of the Raijin-2, which was developed by the two Japanese universities. The satellite was deployed from the International Space Station on April 27, 2016. Diwata-1 was replaced by Diwata-2 sometime in 2018.
The Philippine Department of Science and Technology announced on June 29, 2017 that two CubeSats or nanosatellites will be launch in 2018. One of these satellites was Maya-1, a nanosatellite developed under the Kyushu Institute of Technology-led Birds-2 project, was launched to space. The equipment is the first nanosatellite of the Philippines and is also placed under the PHL-Microsat program. It is to be deployed from the ISS sometime in August 2018, On August 10, Maya-1 was deployed from the ISS along with satellites from Bhutan and Malaysia.
Part of the program also includes training Filipinos on satellite building capabilities.
It is planned that within the period of 2017 to 2022, that the Philippines will always have an operational microsatellite in orbit.
Phases
The project is divided into five sub-projects or phases.| Project No. | Objective |
| 1 | Development of Diwata-1 and Diwata-2 microsatellites |
| 2 | Development of a ground receiving station |
| 3 | Data processing, archiving and distribution subsystem development |
| 4 | Calibration and validation of remote sensing instruments |
| 5 | Remote sensing data product development |