space technology

The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) successfully launched two locally-built cube satellites (CubeSats)—Maya-5 and Maya-6—to the International Space Station (ISS) via the SpaceX Falcon 9 while on its 28th commercial resupply mission on June 5, 2023 at around 11:47 PM PST. According to the space agency, the Maya-5 and Maya-6 CubeSats were created as a technology demonstration and educational platform developed for remote data collection using Store-and-Forward (S&F) Mechanism. [caption id="attachment_338976" align="alignnone" width="1080"] Maya-5 and Maya-6 | Image/ STAMINA4Space[/caption] The said mechanism involves collecting data and then storing it until the satellite passes over a ground station, at which point the data is forwarded to the station for analysis. Maya-3 and Maya-4, which were the first cube satellites made by Filipinos, were launched to the International Space Station in August 2021 and returned to Earth a year later. The Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (EEEI) of UPD's Master of Science (MS) or Master of Engineering (MEng) program's nanosatellite track was also developed in partnership with Japan's Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech), with DOST's Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) providing scholarship support. The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) recently launched SIKAP+, which stood for the Space Infrastructure, Know-How, and Applications Acceleration through Promotion and Training project, in aims to expand scientific research and cooperation among Asian nations. Read more in our articles including "PH launches Maya-5, Maya-6 cube satellites into space" and "PH to teach other nations on space tech and best practices".