The Netherlands is to send its own satellite into space. The so-called Brik II is to collect intelligence for defence, among other things.
On Friday, contracts were signed during an arms fair in Rotterdam. Several companies will work on building the satellite, but the sensors will come from defence itself. The launch should take place in summer 2019.
Indispensable information
The satellite is small but ingenious, according to an article in the AD. It is a so-called nano-satellite that has the format of a large carton of milk. Inside the satellite, due on the outside lined with small solar panels, is a spectrometer that analyses radio waves coming from, for example, aircraft, ships and military units. 'Navigation, communication and observation of the earth,' is how Head of Bureau Space Major Bernard Buijs describes its capabilities. 'Without that information, you can hardly carry out military operations. We don't yet know exactly how we ultimately want to deploy this resource, but we will look for a niche with which we can distinguish ourselves. And we see this mainly as a demonstration of what we are all up against if we want to take this up seriously.' The nano-satellite flies around the earth at 7 kilometres per second in 1.5 hours.
The company ISIS has taken care of the satellite's framework. The sensors will soon be packed in it. The less than 10-kilo package is then glued to a rocket and released somewhere between 600 and 700 kilometres. The satellite then transmits data to the new space centre at the barracks in Dongen.
Initially, a number of technical gadgets will be sent into space, such as a private mailbox that allows troops to transmit highly sensitive information to headquarters without an ally or company watching. Now soldiers hire that capacity from others. Defence would also like to have its own weather station. This is because the satellites for GPS and communication suffer greatly from solar winds with ionising radiation. This causes interference and a poorer range. The weather station can give warnings about an approaching storm, for instance, so that military operations can take this into account.
Potential
Space offers a lot of potential when it comes to obtaining valuable information. For instance, many companies already use their own satellites to manage vehicle fleets worldwide. The satellites provide information on upcoming maintenance and shortages, for instance.
Because satellites are getting smaller and smaller (for a long time, satellites the size of trucks went into space), it also costs less to set up an operation in space. The Brik-II will cost defence 2.5 million euros, including the launch. The satellite should be able to stay in space for at least 3 years, but defence hopes for more. In 25 years at the latest, the nano-satellite will return to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.
By: Kelly Bakker
Source: AD/Defence
