SAC-C is 10 Years Old

10 years of the most successful Argentine satellite
The SAC-C is an advanced equipment made in the country, doubling its life, is key to the collection of images against floods or fires and agricultural and scientific applications. 
By Victor Ingrassia
Sunday November 21, 2010 | 1:17 (updated at 12:28)


 
Bariloche and part of the Andes was the first image of the SAC-C that reached Earth. Photo: Conae
Photo Invap


 
Time of launch, aboard a Delta rocket in the U.S. . Photo: File


By Victor Ingrassia
Editors of lanacion.com
vingrassia@lanacion.com.ar
On Twitter: @ vingrassia


After a decade of space navigation, posing his "eyes" on Earth and in fact in our country, the most successful satellite developed and built in Argentina is of celebration and their "parents" in the National Commission on Space Activities (CONAE) cannot be more proud, and which doubled its life and continues to provide key information in the country, every day.
This is the SAC-C, which came into space at 16:55 on November 21, 2000, and has been in orbit for ten years supply satellite images and important data of the land area in Argentina that is used in agriculture, care environmental, emergency management, and scientific and educational applications.
On November 21, 2000, 1655, launched from the Vandenberg base in California, owned by the U.S. Air Force, the first mission of the National Space Plan, a long-term program designed with the objective of use and benefit from science and space technology for peaceful purposes. "For the Conae, was an exceptional day," said mission chief scientist of the SAC-C, Dr. Fernando Raul Colomb.


"The SAC-C has given us great satisfaction and possibly continue to give us more," he said yesterday Dr. Conrado Varotto, executive and technical director of the Conae, referring to the satellite of 485 kilograms, which is located 705 kilometers tall, measures 2.2 meters by 2 meters in diameter and 14.5 da flights daily around the earth.
"Ten years of scientific and technological presence in space Argentina demonstrate the potential of our country and the ability of Argentine professionals," said Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, who is also Chairman of the Conae, adding that " Government has taken the political decision to prioritize the scientific and technological development and production of high-tech sectors that generate high added value. "
In Argentina, Conae is responsible for the Argentine Space Program to develop knowledge and key activities to position the country among the nations with access to space technology.
Tireless worker. "After the first two satellites built and launched in Argentina in the 90's, it was the turn of the SAC-C, a successful scientific satellite equipped with three high-sensitivity multispectral cameras and radar technology, which helps evaluate water resources, like water falling in the upper basin of the Parana or snow on the mountains that feed the river Limay, besides being able to identify areas vulnerable to floods or fires, "he said during the fifth year of operation, the engineer Fernando Hisas, project manager Conae.
With SAC-C data, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food and INTA Estimations of crops and crop studies, the National Institute of Water monitors the water situation in the Plata Basin, produces hydrological risk alerts water and emergency assessments, and the Grain Exchange in Entre Rios evaluates the production of cereals and oilseeds.
The satellite also provides data for ecological studies in the Ibera wetlands and wetland ecosystems and their changes in the Parana River Delta. For its part, the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Oceans, Faculty of Natural Sciences, UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires) is making an atlas of clouds with their images.
The Argentine satellite has also become a tool of foreign policy for our country and the information generated is now received at ground stations in South Africa and Ecuador. The instruments with which the satellite has enabled him over the years to conduct monitoring of the quality of water in the oceans, volcanoes and agricultural pests, as well as to estimate the impact of floods, such as affecting the province of Buenos Aires and La Pampa in 2001.
The SAC-C images can be downloaded for free from the website of Conae: www.conae.gov.ar.


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