Francisco Segura Hernández

Project Morazan - A Junior Space Systems Engineer Perspective

Project Morazan is the first honduran satellite, being developed in international cooperation between Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica. In this project my role is as one of the 4 Space Systems Engineers, that are overseeing the technical and administrative side of the spaceborne system of the project. The space system consists of a 1 unit cubesat, with 3 missions, the main one is to work as a relay between remote sensing monitor stations that are measuring the climatic conditions of three basins, one in each country. These basins were selected by a team of scientists that determined that there exists a high risk of flooding during the rainy season in the tropics, with direct impact to it's residents. The second mission consists of working as an emergency communication device between the basins and the ground station to provide communication in case that ground lines are lost after an event. The third and final mission has the objective of taking a picture of Central America, as a means to encourage kids to explore careers in STEAM and positively impact the future of Central America. This project succesfully won th 5th round of the KIBO Cube Awards, allowing it to launch to the International Space Station with the help of the Japanase Aeroespace Exploration Agency (JAXA). This project is ongoing and is targeting to launch in 2024.