First Brazilian device will monitor corn and soy in the state of Maranhão

09/27/2022

---

The maiden mission of the first Brazilian agricultural nanosatellite will be to monitor corn and soy crops in the northeastern state of Maranhão. A partnership of technical and financial cooperation between the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and Visiona Tecnologia Espacial will enable the capture of images of the planted areas by the VCUB 1 — considered a validation satellite. The equipment, as big as a shoe box, will be launched into space in early 2023 by a rocket belonging to the U.S. company SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

VCUB 1 is expected to improve the visualization of agricultural targets, located on the ground, of the public images of the U.S. and European government satellites that are used for crop monitoring. The nanosatellite will pass 14 times a day over the country, rotating in the opposite direction of the Earth, increasing the amount and quality of data collected for agriculture. The equipment will have an unprecedented system in Brazil, which allows the camera to be precisely aimed at the desired location or to perform an orbit correction, among other applications.

Embrapa and Visiona – a joint venture between Telebras and Embraer that operates as an integrator in the space industry and leads the remote sensing market in Brazil – believe that the technology can offer an unprecedented solution in obtaining more accurate estimates of crop productivity. The Foundation for the Support of Research and Development (Faped) is also participating in the agreement.

The partnership was named Estimation of Agricultural Productivity by Means of a Spectral Agrometeorological Modeling. João Antunes, a researcher at Embrapa Digital Agriculture and technical manager of the agreement, said that the initiative will mean an evolution of API Agritec (agriculture-oriented programming interface) to provide more assertiveness in productivity forecasts for soybean and corn crops in Maranhão. Under the agreement, the research center will be responsible for validating the information, spatial images, and maps of agricultural crops provided by Visiona.

Farmers in Maranhão have registered their farms, indicating their location, the crops they grow there and the estimated productivity. These data are cross-referenced with Embrapa’s data and images from other satellites already available. When the VCUB is in operation, the nanosatellite information will be incorporated into the interface.

However, this is expected to happen only by the end of second half next year. After being launched, the nanosatellite will undergo a trial period of three to six months, when all subsystems will be put to test, and validated. Initially, Visiona’s idea was to launch the equipment in 2021, but there was a delay.

VCUB 1 will be equipped with a high spatial resolution camera specifically designed to capture agricultural targets in greater detail. The technology will enable the capture of detailed images 3.5 meters from the ground. Satellites currently in operation provide images in 5 to 30 meters detail.

“When agrometeorological data is associated with satellite images, the models gain precision, allowing greater certainty in decisions. Furthermore, the data collection system can serve the Internet of Things (IoT) market in places with little infrastructure,” Embrapa CEO Celso Moretti said.

João Paulo Campos — Foto: Divulgação

“The possibility of combining high-quality images 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,” Visiona CEO João Paulo Campos said.

*By Rafael Walendorff — Brasília

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/