Mexico to launch its second nanosatellite from the Space Station in 2025

MEXICO - The Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) and the Mexican Space Agency (AEM), announced that Mexico will have its second Nanosatellite deployed from the International Space Station (ISS), the “GXIBA-1”, in 2025.

Salvador Landeros Ayala, general director of the AEM, informed that this new advance in satellite technology, proudly created by Mexican ingenuity, is a development of the UPAEP in collaboration with the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA).

He highlighted that the Mexican team was selected in 2022 to develop this new Nanosatellite in the sixth call of the international competition “KiboCUBE” of JAXA and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA-UN).

Hazuki Mori of UNOOSA, stressed that only two teams in Latin America have achieved this, and the director of aerospace projects at UPAEP, Eugenio Urrutia Albisua, explained that the GXIBA-1 mission is part of the Monitoring and Exploration of Active Volcanoes (MEVA) program.

“The MEVA social mission includes developing advanced technologies to monitor changes in volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, especially in Popocatepetl, that support scientists in predicting eruptions and protecting vulnerable communities in Mexico,” he said.

For the collection and analysis of this data, components and sensors were programmed in the device, and with the development of artificial intelligence algorithms, such as Machine and Deep Learning, patterns and trends in volcanic behavior will be identified.

He recalled that with the AEM, UPAEP has already developed AztechSat-1, the first Mexican Nanosatellite in the ISS, which was recognized by NASA among the twenty innovative projects in its official publication “20 Years of ISS Science”, and a source of great pride for our country in 2019.

The team of human capital formed at that time with the support of AEM and NASA in design, construction and operation of satellites, and systems engineering methodology and space project management, competed in the KiboCUBE and today collaborates in “GXIBA-1”, he said.

The president of JAXA, Hiroshi Yamakawa, expressed to Landeros that this project will put the name of our country very high, as well as his officials Fujita Tatsuhito, Shibano Yasuk, Kojima Hiromich, and Doi Shinobu, widely congratulated the Mexican community for this new milestone.

The action endorses UPAEP as a special reference educational institution in the country, and contributes to the goal of President Claudia Sheinbaum to develop its own satellites and transform Mexico into a world scientific power, since space is a social good, they concluded.