The UP launches into space; signs agreement with the AEM

This alliance will not only be for the benefit of the country, but this project will also be for the benefit of humanity”.

Dr. Salvador Landeros Ayala, General Director of the Mexican Space Agency.

The Mexican Space Agency (AEM) and the Pan American University (UP) signed this Wednesday a collaboration agreement to join forces in space research in Mexico, in support of the Aztechsat project that seeks to solve problems of daily life in the field of satellite telecommunications, navigation, climate emergency, Earth observation, space debris collection, among other topics.

The Aztechsat project contemplates the design, construction, testing activities, launch and operation of a nanosatellite of the constellation of the same name, with the mission of monitoring marine animals on the ocean surface. Through this alliance, the AEM will support the UP for the delivery of certified flight units for a nanosatellite.

For its part, the Pan American will coordinate with the staff of the AEM and the United States Agency for the Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, for its acronym in English), to develop the Aztechsat project in accordance with the engineering methodology of space systems established by the organization; Likewise, it undertakes to design, build and test an engineering model of a nanosatellite of the Aztechsat constellation.

At the signing ceremony, Dr. Alejandro Ordóñez Torres, director of the UP Faculty of Engineering, stated that “the Pan American University has always been very interested in participating in cutting-edge technology issues, in developing applied science and applied knowledge, and that we are seeing precisely now, that space is an important market and it is a market that is going to become increasingly valuable both for private initiative and for governments”.

He stressed that this agreement between the Pan American and the Mexican Space Agency, without a doubt, is “our grain of sand that will help humanity to follow that path that we have towards the future, full of challenges.”

For his part, Dr. Salvador Landeros Ayala, General Director of the Mexican Space Agency, stated: “We are very pleased that the Universidad Panamericana is assuming that vision of the future that always characterizes it. We know their teachers and researchers, the students, and we know about their unity, their ability and commitment to make the project successful. This alliance will not only be for the benefit of the country, but this project will also be for the benefit of humanity.”

He indicated that NASA invited Mexico to join the Artemis program (whose purpose is the return of human beings to the Moon and Mars) and without a doubt it is a great opportunity for “the Mexican Space Agency to continue collaborating with its future projects with universities as prestigious as the Pan-American”.

Today we have a great opportunity, highlighted Salvador Landeros, “because space has a multiplier effect, a chain reaction for everything that is produced for space in industry, in companies, because jobs and new technologies are created; in the universities that participate in the training of talent; in the same government.

He indicated that “on a global level, currently investments in space are of the order of 400 billion dollars and in a few more years it will reach a trillion dollars, and that is precisely because any activity of the applications that we mentioned of telecommunications, observation, of exploration, because it produces the development of technology on several fronts and that is the chain reaction”.

For his part, Ángel García Hernández, director of the Colibri Mission Space Laboratory of the UP, stated that “the Pan American University has the vision of being able to create complex high-tech projects and working closely with the Mexican Space Agency, it is prepared to have challenges of this magnitude, we have in the work plan established to be able to carry out the projects that we are signing and it will definitely be a very long experience and a very close trajectory with you to be able to work together and carry out all the objectives of vision and mission that the country has in space”.

Scope of the agreement

The agreement will allow both institutions to develop the following general and specific agreements of the Aztechsat project: scientific research, technological development and engineering projects; evaluation of technologies and techniques related to the areas of interest and reciprocal advice; education, training and exchange of human resources, evaluation of technologies and techniques related to the areas of interest.

Likewise, identification, concentration and dissemination of technical and general interest information; actions leading to technology transfer; dissemination of space activities and generate space culture; promote the exchange of students, professors, researchers and specialists with national and international institutions and academic exchange so that UP researchers, technicians and students participate in research and development projects, as well as AEM staff, which allow stays at the facilities of either of the two institutions, as well as participation in seminars, conferences, refresher courses and diploma courses; always with the aim of strengthening relations to propose or strengthen joint projects in the area of ​​action of projects that are elevated to the category of specific agreements.

francisco.deanda@eleconomista.mx