MISC-3 A COLOMBIAN CUBESAT 3U FOR EARTH-OBSERVING APPLICATIONS

As an emergent space economy, the first national Colombian space project was "Libertad 1", a CubeSat 1U satellite platform built by the Sergio Arboleda University, which was launched on April 17, 2007. Following, "FACSAT-1", the second Colombian satellite, by the Colombian Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Colombiana, FAC), was launched on November 28, 2018. Recently, The National Council for Economic and Social Policy (CONPES) approved the Space Development Policy to give greater relevance to the use of satellite technologies for the country's productivity and motivated by this national synergy, the Colombian Air Force established their space program guided by the construction and launch in orbit of 3 small satellites conforming the "FactSat" program. The program considered as well the training of human resources and the construction of space facilities, focusing on the establishment of the know-how and necessary infrastructure to facilitate end-to-end space missions. With the same frame of mind, FAC committed to establish strategic alliances with universities in Colombia, to develop further small satellite missions, that will allow scientists and engineers to address the needs of the country, which include remote sensing, communications, monitoring of drug tracking, illegal fishing, assessing the impact of and preparing for climate change, among others. In 2018, a meeting between the FAC research centre: "Centro de Investigación en Tecnologías Aeroespaciales, (CITAE)" and three Colombian universities Universidad Industrial de Santander, Universidad del Valle y Universidad Sergio Arboleda, agreed upon a joint space engineering project, named MISC-3. This work introduces the project, a CubeSat mission, as cooperation between research institutions in Colombia, funded by the national research ministry: MINCIENCIAS. The MISC-3 project, recently named LEOpar mission, will develop the first Colombian satellite build by multiple universities, a CubeSat 3U model with a hyperspectral camera with VISNIR spectral bands, as payload. Moreover, the camera will be the first Colombian payload designed by Colombian scientists, which is to be launched into space. During this paper, we will discuss both Phase 0 and Phase A of the mission, where a prototype of the instrument will be developed to allows identify spacecraft capabilities, requirements, specifications, and needed resources. Additionally, the prototype will help to define the spacecraft subsystems and other relevant mission features, including project management, funding acquisition, testing, launch, and operations.