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:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elfinanciero/MWTM3DBKZJAPVKR5S5HNBXUVFA.jpg "UNAM launches 'Colmena' space mission to Moon; What are the objectives? – Finance")
This year 2024, only NASA will have important space missions. National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is flying a projectIts mission is to take robots to the moon for six months.
UNAM's first space mission Called Colemena, it will launch between 02:00 and 03:00 PM on January 8, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, aboard the Astrobotic spacecraft Peregrine, and is already installed on a Vulcan Centaur rocket. .
Gustavo The spacecraft is expected to separate from the rocket an hour and a half after launch, said Medina Danko, a researcher at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences (ICN) and head of the Colemana Mission and Space Instrumentation Laboratory (LINX). From there, its journey to Earth's natural satellite will take four to six weeks.
“It's important for society to take note of that work, not just because it's a technological milestone.: Going to the moon is one of the most complex operations a civilization can undertake Man today; It was the first Mexican mission and the first from Latin America.
What is Colemena Mission?
Colmena is a project created and developed by UNAM's LINX, which is part of the research house's commitment to the Mexican community to promote its development and create sustainable well-being based on science and technology.
Also, he has received Supported by the Mexican Space Agency, Funded by the defunct AEM-CONACYT sector and by various Mexican and foreign companies.
The task is created Five micro robots weighing less than 60 grams and 12 centimeters diameter, as well as a deployment and telecommunications module – called TTDM – has two goals: First, the problems that microrobots face in hostile space environments should be studied and characterized from an engineering perspective.
Until now, no one has developed such small robots to operate in space, the UNAM expert noted.
Likewise, the micro-robots are expected to help validate strategies to mitigate the effects of rocket vibration and shocks, sudden variations in temperature, high radiation, electromagnetic interference and lunar regolith. .
Second objectiveMedina Danko is to analyze what the Moon's near-surface layer looks like, what its properties are, and the parameters that define its physical properties. How it affects telecommunications among other problems.
“Colmena is an exciting project and is the first part of something bigger. We want to develop capabilities to carry out operations on the surface of the moon or an asteroid with micro-robots that can work together in large swarms.
Why is the Colemana space mission important?
This is taskMedina Danko emphasized, and is being carried out at a very important moment internationally.The space industry is undergoing a major revolution. The transformation, known as New Space or Space 4.0, is driven by the miniaturization of technology and the reduction of costs.
Also, the space is expected to have a very important place – from the point of view Social economy– In human civilization, that is why UNAM, through LINX, has been working on this kind of development for many years, so that Mexico is a great actor in this transformation.
