History was created when the first unit of COLOSSUS PCDU was sent from Guayaquil, Ecuador to a US customer in California. The first PCDU totally designed, built and tested in Latin America, born in Ecuador was shipped by EXA (Ecuadorian Space Agency).
What is PCDU?
It is like a heart of a satellite, a big satellite, not a cubesat or nanosatellite, “we are talking here about the big birds of 150Kg and up, but back to what a PCDU is, as its acronym says “Power Conditioning and Delivery/Distribution Unit” is the power core that keeps the lights on in the satellite,” explains a top company executive.
According to him it takes the power generated by the solar panels, or arrays and conditions it.
What does this mean?
There is no satellite without a PCDU.
It means that it transforms it into the multiple needs of the multiple devices in the spacecraft that need different types of power like, for example, 50 volts at 5 amperes, 12 volts at 3 amperes, 28 volts at 3 amperes, and keeping those different power streams steady and stable, so the satellite can work.
What’s unique about this situation?
Firstly, the device in question is incredibly intricate – think of a highly advanced UPS with its own computer and operating system. What sets it apart is that it’s a groundbreaking creation, never before seen or developed in Latin America.
Now, here’s the second noteworthy point: COLOSSUS stands out as the most advanced PCDU (Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit) of its kind. This distinction arises not only from its integrated design (unlike previous units sold without batteries) but also from having the highest power-to-volume and weight ratio in its category. In simpler terms, it’s compact, powerful, and equipped with everything a large satellite requires. In contrast, other vendors sell components separately, dividing the PCDU, batteries, solar arrays manager, and more into distinct products.
COLOSSUS excels in consolidating customer expectations into a single, integrated unit. Weighing merely 7.6 Kg, it efficiently delivers 1.6 Kilowatts of power, akin to a small house’s daily consumption. This power constitutes a mere 5% of a 150 Kg satellite’s mass, yet effectively energizes the entire spacecraft, showcasing remarkable efficiency.
EXA envisions a range of COLOSSUS models, expandable up to 16 Kilowatts, sustaining continuous power equivalent to running a flat for 16 days. This scalability maintains the same efficiency in both mass and power demonstrated by the inaugural COLOSSUS L2A, dispatched in December 2023. The design is exclusively EXA’s, while the on-board computer, overseeing device control, running the operating system, and dutifully executing satellite commands, originates from QAS—a Ecuadorian company. Quantum Aerospace not only conceived this computer but also produced it domestically, along with the flight software, thoughtfully crafted by QAS engineers.
Background
COLOSSUS design started back in 2018 with a team lead by EXA’s Chief Designer, Academician Ronnie Nader, later in 2022 after the proper validation of all models prototyping and testing started and a contract was awarded by a US company building its own fleet of 15 satellites of 150Kg each. The unit first shipped was an EDU or Engineering Development Unit, later in 2024 the first Flight Unit will be shipped and then 15 units more.
For Ecuador based EXA the main competitors are huge companies like Airbus, Thales, Boeing, and many other medium companies in the US and Europe.
According to the company, while their competitors offer bulky, expensive units that can take a year or more to be delivered, EXA can deliver lean, compact and more powerful COLOSSUS units in merely 3 months.
How do they do that?
“We keep costs down, never sacrificing quality; we are not dozens or hundreds of people, our designs are all modular, we use a lot of robotic manufacturing and invest in top quality tools and equipment and we work in silence and secrecy, we are loyal to our customers and work closely with them and we work a lot, we are not 9-to-5 workers” says Ronnie Nader, EXA’s Chief Designer.
The hardware and software of the MCU of the COLOSSUS family are a very efficient piece of engineering, “All its technical features have been designed to control in an efficient and scalable way the enormous amount of power that COLOSSUS can provide and manage during a space mission” says Jaime Jaramillo, QAS CEO.
“It is a little scary, so much power in such a small package…” said Guisella Moncayo, Marketing Director at EXA.
