Monitoring corn and soybeans will inaugurate Brazilian agricultural nanosatellite

Agricultural monitoring and estimation of soybean and corn production in the state of Maranhão will begin work on the Visiona CUB (VCUB), the first nanosatellite designed entirely by the Brazilian industry to validate agricultural application technologies. The satellite, weighing just 12 kilograms and the approximate size of a shoebox (see chart), is expected to be placed into orbit in early 2023.

The equipment's first mission was agreed this year through technical and financial cooperation signed between the company Visiona Tecnologia Espacial, Embrapa Agricultura Digital and the Research and Development Support Foundation (Faped). This step was the evolution of a partnership between the companies that began in 2018 and aimed at developing the agricultural use of nanosatellites.

Public images from American and European government satellites are already widely used to support the monitoring of the Brazilian agricultural harvest to support public policies and the productive sector with information. The data is obtained free of charge by the institutions, however, the service needed improvement in visualizing agricultural targets, located on the ground, below the clouds. Therefore, experts believe that the modern technologies embedded in VCUB are an unprecedented solution for obtaining more accurate estimates of crop productivity.

The researchers recall that severe weather events recorded in the last harvest (2021/2022) caused significant losses to soybean and corn crops, in particular. Therefore, in the current scenario, increasing the quantity and quality of images intended for mapping and monitoring production and conservation areas is a critical factor.

Prepared for the internet of things

The president of Embrapa, Celso Moretti, highlights that the current phase of digital agriculture is marked by the combined use of sensors, applications and artificial intelligence. “Institutions, companies and producers are increasingly seeking information technology solutions to support their decision-making processes”, he reports.

“When agrometeorological data is associated with satellite images, the models gain precision, allowing greater assertiveness in decisions. Furthermore, the data collection system will be able to serve the internet of things (IoT) market in locations with little infrastructure. Hence the importance of approaching a space systems integrator like Visiona”, points out the director, stressing that VCUB integrates space and computational systems, aiming to improve performance and increase the socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of the sector.

For João Paulo Campos, president of Visiona, VCUB is a milestone for the advancement and autonomy of the Brazilian aerospace industry, which gains even greater significance as its primary mission is to serve agribusiness, a fundamental sector for the country. “The possibility of combining images with high quality and collecting data from sensors in the field makes VCUB a powerful platform for agricultural applications, and the partnership with Embrapa will be fundamental to transform this potential into concrete solutions aimed at the Brazilian market”, evaluates Campos.

“We come with knowledge from teams that work with geotechnologies, agri-environmental monitoring and IT [information technology] systems applied to agriculture; and Visiona brings experience in space technology, so that together we can develop a set of intelligent systems for agribusiness”, explains Stanley Oliveira, general manager of Embrapa Digital Agriculture.

The manager highlights that Embrapa will be able to contribute to other topics of interest in the agricultural area, including involving more of the Company's research centers and various technologies, as there is a general cooperation agreement in place.

Cleber Oliveira, Visiona's operations director, highlights that the joint development of intelligent systems will initially serve the grain production market, but could evolve to other plant species and expand to different regions of the country. The executive says that the agricultural sector is one of the focuses of the Brazilian space systems integrator.

Curiosities about the Brazilian nanosatellite

Size - The VCUB uses a 12 kilogram platform, with dimensions of 30 centimeters long, 20 centimeters high and 10 centimeters wide,  bringing the “state of the art” in small satellite technologies.

Microsatellite – Nanosatellites are considered to be those weighing up to 10 kilograms; from this weight and up to 30 kilos, the technical name becomes “microsatellite”. Despite the VCUB gaining two additional kilograms, it continues to be considered a nanosatellite.

In the opposite direction – The nanosatellite will pass 14 times in a near-polar orbit (approximately north-south direction), rotating in the opposite direction to Earth.

Lifespan - VCUB is scheduled to operate for three years, but there are satellites that have a planned useful life of around five years and have operated for more than 15 years.

Constellations – Having three satellites in joint operation is considered a constellation. Studies show that nine satellites would be enough to cover the entire Brazil in 20 days.

APIs – The acronym API stands for Application Programming Interface and comes from the English term Application Programming Interface. APIs serve as the basis for the development of specific software products, according to the area of ​​activity of each company that develops solutions for the market.

SpaceX – To launch the VCUB, Visiona hired the North American SpaceX, a company owned by businessman Elon Musk.

More quality and quantity of data

Even with its small size, the Visiona CUB carries the technology of large satellites and will pass around the Earth 14 times a day. Gains are expected in the periodicity of image collection, which could go from intervals of five days to a frequency of up to two days, increasing the probability of collecting images without clouds – obstacles to viewing targets on the ground.

The satellite will be equipped with a high spatial resolution camera specifically designed to capture agricultural targets in greater detail. The innovation is the result of a partnership with Embrapa and includes the installation of an unprecedented system in the country, which allows the satellite to precisely point its camera to the desired location or perform an orbit correction, among other applications.

“Currently, satellites in operation provide detailed images from 5 to 30 meters above the ground. Ours will reach 3,5 meters”, highlights Cleber Oliveira. Furthermore, the addition of a spectral band, called the red edge, gives greater definition to the images, improving the accuracy in crop visualization, says the director.

Until then, for agriculture, the blue, green, red and near infrared bands had been used. The VCUB will also have a data collection system in the Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) band based on software-defined radio (SDR) technology. The scientists emphasize that the embedded systems will be validated in the first quarter of 2023, when the VCUB goes into operation.

Research

Researcher João Antunes, from Embrapa, technical manager of the agreement, assesses that the joint initiative – called Estimation of Agricultural Productivity through an Agrometeorological-Spectral Model – will mean an evolution of the API Agritec (agricultural programming interface), enabling greater assertiveness in productivity forecasts for soybean and corn crops in the state of Maranhão.

“The technological solution must be improved with the future incorporation of data obtained from VCUB images”, predicts the researcher. Under the agreement, the research center will be responsible for validating the information, spatial images and maps of agricultural crops provided by Visiona.

Visiona will also provide technical information regarding the execution of the agreement and will provide information necessary for the development of the system. Faped will be responsible for administrative management and management of financial resources, in accordance with the schedule and work plan, as well as accountability.

Solutions

In the first stage, conducted by Visiona in conjunction with the state of Maranhão, farmers registered indicating location, crops grown and estimated productivity.

In the second module, using agrometeorological data, Embrapa works to indicate the location of crops and estimate the productivity of areas where soybean and corn are produced in the state. Researcher Santiago Cuadra, from Embrapa, is responsible for including spectral data in the Agritec API.

Module 3 of the system will go into production before the launch of VCUB and will use public satellite images to improve productivity estimation through the Agrometeorological-Spectral Model. “When the VCUB is in operation, the data collected by the nanosatellite can be incorporated into this new version of the Agritec API", assesses the researcher.

First months of testing

Thiago Rodrigues, Project and Solutions Development Manager, at Visiona, recalls that VCUB is considered a technology validation satellite. Once launched, it must go through the commissioning period, when all subsystems are put to the test, tested and validated.

“We will test whether communication with the satellite is adequate, whether the camera on board the satellite is collecting data correctly. Data collection on the ground and the response of targets being detected by the camera will also be calibrated”, details the manager.

Only after this period, lasting three to six months, does the nanosatellite come into operation for applications. Rodrigues informs that the VCUB launch rocket contracted by Visiona is from the American company Space X.