PAKSAT MM1 - SCI & TECH

News: Pak To Send Second Satellite With China's Help For Digital Transformation

 

What's in the news?

       Pakistan's Multi-Mission Communication Satellite, also known as PAKSAT MM1, will be launched on May 30.

 

Key takeaways:

       The Pakistan Spa­ce and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) described it as a “stepping stone in the transformation of the country into Digital Pakistan.”

       The launch will be conducted at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre (XSLC), China.

 

PAKSAT MM1:

       This satellite project is the hallmark of technological cooperation between China and Pakistan.

       Total deliverable capacity of Ka-Band is 10Gbps covering whole Pakistan, there is no steerable beam in Ka-HTS payload.

       Maximum throughput achievable on a single beam is approximately 1 Gbps.

       User beams are fixed and cannot be steered over any particular area.

       For PakSat-MM1 HTS, three Gateway beams have been designed over Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad with gateway beams of 0.08°.

       PakSat-MM1 HTS has been designed in such a way that one GW can handle all the traffic of 11 user beams.

 

Go back to basics:

       Earlier this year, Pakistan celebrated the successful launch of its mini-satellite 'iCube-Qamar' as part of China's Chang'e-6 lunar mission.

       Pakis­tan’s maiden lunar satellite iCube-Qamar transmitted the first images from orbit recently, after completing three rounds of the moon.