Innova Space: move small messages from remote places

Innova Space’s General San Martin, also called MDQubeSAT1, launched in January 2022 as an early step toward the Libertadores de América communications constellation. The project grew from work associated with a technical school in Mar del Plata. CNEA supplied solar panels and described their electrical integration, visual inspection and functional checks. The launch account establishes a flight; the much larger constellation described in early announcements was an ambition, not an already demonstrated network.

The service idea is especially useful to examine through small messages from remote sensors. A water-level station or agricultural instrument may need to report a short measurement rather than stream continuous video. The sensor makes the measurement on the ground; the satellite carries information onward. Calling this an Internet-of-Things application does not imply that a small relay offers the same speed, latency — open definition or continuous connection as a household broadband service.

In a store-and-forward — open definition design, a relay receives a message, retains it and delivers it when a suitable onward contact becomes available. Consider an original example: a sensor measures water level at 10:00, uploads the record at 10:10, and the receiving service obtains it at 10:40. The measurement is forty minutes old when delivered. The final transfer might be fast while the complete observation-to-delivery interval is still too long for a particular warning system.

Each record should preserve the measurement time, sensor identity, units and a sequence number. If two satellite passes deliver the same record, the receiver can use the identity and sequence number to avoid counting it twice. If a sequence is missing, the system can flag a gap instead of inventing a value. These are general design principles and fictional timings, not a claim about measured performance or a guaranteed delivery schedule for Innova Space’s satellites.

Keep measurement time with the record

The CNEA photograph shows solar-panel work at a bench. It connects the tiny spacecraft concept with physical assembly and inspection. A panel’s appearance cannot by itself establish its electrical output, so functional measurements matter. In an original energy budget, a transmitter uses two watts for fifteen minutes. Its energy use is half a watt-hour. The spacecraft must also power its computer and other equipment, and account for battery and conversion losses.

Suppose a proposed operating schedule consumes more energy per orbit than the power system can replace. A larger battery can postpone depletion, but it does not fix the persistent energy deficit. Engineers can change operating time, component consumption or power generation, then test the revised budget. For a classroom design, choose a measurement frequency and an acceptable delivery delay before selecting a relay schedule. That connects the user’s actual need to communications opportunities, storage and the available energy.