Steel Royal Space

Founded in December 2023 by engineering students from the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) in Lima, Peru, our team is dedicated to aerospace technology research and participation in international competitions. We aim to foster interest in space exploration within our country. Our focus is on developing CANSAT-type satellite prototypes (Figure 1), which provide us with a hands-on approach to real satellite missions in space. These devices are designed to transmit atmospheric data measured during the mission via an onboard telemetry system to a ground station that receives the signals.

Figure 1: CANSAT UNAM 2024, Decouplyng system and autogyro.

As a team, we have participated in international competitions such as the CANSAT UNAM 2024 (Figure 2), held on May 24th in Mexico. Currently, we are working on a mission for the Latin American Space Challenge, which will take place in São Paulo, Brazil, in December 2024. Our goal is to develop a CANSAT device capable of real-time monitoring of forest fires in the Amazon rainforest, providing crucial data such as the area of incidence and the direction of the fire.

Figure 2: Launch and data transmission tests, CANSAT UNAM 2024.

In this challenge, we aim to integrate a telemetry system that allows us to transmit data over a distance of 3 km. Therefore, the electronic design is crucial to prevent data loss due to noise interference, making a good PCB design for the onboard computer and the ground station essential.

The telemetry system (Figure 3) is based on LoRa communication (P4) and also includes a GPS module (P1) to locate the satellite in real-time and determine the location of the fire. Additionally, the IMU inertial sensor (P2) is very important as it allows us to accurately track the device’s movement during its launch. Finally, it includes a power stage that enables us to power the CANSAT’s electronic devices.

Figure 3: Telemetry System, CANSAT

As a team, the support from PCBWay is very important to us, enabling us to successfully carry out this mission thanks to their extensive experience in the electronic development sector. We appreciate their support in our mission to promote interest in space exploration in our country through these types of STEM challenges, which we aim to give an innovative touch. Additionally, these challenges can be useful to society, such as monitoring fires, which is a very serious issue in our Amazon rainforest.