Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
A bunch of 7 interesting satellites will share a ride on an equally interesting Indian rocket today, including the world's first cubesat converted from a smartphone, a suitcase sized satellite hunting for near-Earth asteroids and probably the smallest cubesats to house a telescope for astronomical observations. The launch is currently scheduled at 12:31 UTC (6:01 pm local) from the main Indian spaceport at Sriharikota, near the southern city of Chennai.
The main payload, however, might be feeling as if overlooked by at least the spaceflight news websites
h:. A joint oceanography mission between the space agencies of India and France (ISRO and CNES), the 400 kg satellite houses a microwave altimeter that uses the microwave reflection/refraction to determine small changes in the sea-level height, allowing the mapping of ocean currents and from there the dynamic changes of the Earth's oceans and its effects (e.g. remember El Nino / La Nina? These changes in weather are caused by small changes in the Earth's ocean temperatures worldwide) on the climate and marine life. A similar mission is the NASA/CNES Jason series.
The next two bigger passengers are both Canadian. Of particular interest is the NEOSSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) mission from the Canadian Space Agency. The size of a suitcase, it is the first dedicated on-orbit mission for near Earth asteroids surveying and imaging. Unlike ground observations, the satellite can sweep close to the Sun (usually within 45 degrees, and as close as 20 degrees) for any moving objects in the sky, so it will be particularly useful for mapping asteroids orbiting close to, but entirely within the Earth's orbit (a.k.a. the Aten-class asteroids). The mission aims to discover between 4 and 12 asteroids with size 500 meters or larger per month. Sitting next to it is the Sapphire satellite that will be used by the Canadian Department of National Defence to track man-made objects at higher orbits above the Earth (6000 - 40000 km).
Another highlight of this launch is the world's first smartphone-operated satellite. STRaND-1 is built by engineers at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, one of the best known British space technology company today. Unfortunately for Apple fans, the 3.5 kg cubesat is NOT based on the good old iPhone :rofl:. It is based on the Google Nexus One smartphone and of course runs on Android. Using the parts inside it like the cameras, radio links, accelerometers and high performance computer processors (except for the initial testing phase, which a Linux-based satellite computer will be used instead), these off-the-shelf parts will be tested in space environment. Also packed inside it for testing are an electric pulse thruster and a water-alcohol powered thruster, both of which are a first for such a small satellite. You can even use apps to see what the phone is displaying in orbit and upload videos of you guys screaming to compete for the chance of hearing you scream in space! :rofl:
A pair of cubesats designed at the University of Toronto will try out astronomical observations from such a small satellite (20 cm long cubes weighting less than 7 kg). Of course the telescope installed on them will be small, but for their primary mission of recording slight variations in the brightness of the brightest stars in the sky (and revealing different star activities), that is already enough. The two will become part of a six satellite group operated by institutions across Canada, Austria and Poland.
Last but not least is AAUSAT 3, built by students at the Aalborg University of Denmark, their first completely in-house development project (the two previous missions use some off-the-shelf parts). Besides the ability to be tracked through ham radio, it will also track ships from orbit.
And what's so interesting about the rocket? Well the PSLV (One of the two main Indian rockets today) has a rather weird design of having solid motors for the first and third stages and liquid propulsion on the second and fourth stages, not exactly a common design. Today's launch uses the CA (Core Alone) variant with no solid boosters.
Live webcast links, photos and videos on the various satellites coming soon! In the meantime:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z-8YXAlqnc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z-8YXAlqnc[/ame]
http://www.sstl.co.uk/Missions/STRaND-1/STRaND-1/STRaND-1--Smartphone-nanosatellite
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/neossat/
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1302/23neossat/
http://www.space.com/19927-worlds-smallest-space-telescopes-brite.html
http://smsc.cnes.fr/SARAL/
http://www.space.aau.dk/aausat3/
The main payload, however, might be feeling as if overlooked by at least the spaceflight news websites
h:. A joint oceanography mission between the space agencies of India and France (ISRO and CNES), the 400 kg satellite houses a microwave altimeter that uses the microwave reflection/refraction to determine small changes in the sea-level height, allowing the mapping of ocean currents and from there the dynamic changes of the Earth's oceans and its effects (e.g. remember El Nino / La Nina? These changes in weather are caused by small changes in the Earth's ocean temperatures worldwide) on the climate and marine life. A similar mission is the NASA/CNES Jason series. The next two bigger passengers are both Canadian. Of particular interest is the NEOSSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) mission from the Canadian Space Agency. The size of a suitcase, it is the first dedicated on-orbit mission for near Earth asteroids surveying and imaging. Unlike ground observations, the satellite can sweep close to the Sun (usually within 45 degrees, and as close as 20 degrees) for any moving objects in the sky, so it will be particularly useful for mapping asteroids orbiting close to, but entirely within the Earth's orbit (a.k.a. the Aten-class asteroids). The mission aims to discover between 4 and 12 asteroids with size 500 meters or larger per month. Sitting next to it is the Sapphire satellite that will be used by the Canadian Department of National Defence to track man-made objects at higher orbits above the Earth (6000 - 40000 km).
Another highlight of this launch is the world's first smartphone-operated satellite. STRaND-1 is built by engineers at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, one of the best known British space technology company today. Unfortunately for Apple fans, the 3.5 kg cubesat is NOT based on the good old iPhone :rofl:. It is based on the Google Nexus One smartphone and of course runs on Android. Using the parts inside it like the cameras, radio links, accelerometers and high performance computer processors (except for the initial testing phase, which a Linux-based satellite computer will be used instead), these off-the-shelf parts will be tested in space environment. Also packed inside it for testing are an electric pulse thruster and a water-alcohol powered thruster, both of which are a first for such a small satellite. You can even use apps to see what the phone is displaying in orbit and upload videos of you guys screaming to compete for the chance of hearing you scream in space! :rofl:
A pair of cubesats designed at the University of Toronto will try out astronomical observations from such a small satellite (20 cm long cubes weighting less than 7 kg). Of course the telescope installed on them will be small, but for their primary mission of recording slight variations in the brightness of the brightest stars in the sky (and revealing different star activities), that is already enough. The two will become part of a six satellite group operated by institutions across Canada, Austria and Poland.
Last but not least is AAUSAT 3, built by students at the Aalborg University of Denmark, their first completely in-house development project (the two previous missions use some off-the-shelf parts). Besides the ability to be tracked through ham radio, it will also track ships from orbit.
And what's so interesting about the rocket? Well the PSLV (One of the two main Indian rockets today) has a rather weird design of having solid motors for the first and third stages and liquid propulsion on the second and fourth stages, not exactly a common design. Today's launch uses the CA (Core Alone) variant with no solid boosters.
Live webcast links, photos and videos on the various satellites coming soon! In the meantime:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z-8YXAlqnc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z-8YXAlqnc[/ame]
http://www.sstl.co.uk/Missions/STRaND-1/STRaND-1/STRaND-1--Smartphone-nanosatellite
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/neossat/
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1302/23neossat/
http://www.space.com/19927-worlds-smallest-space-telescopes-brite.html
http://smsc.cnes.fr/SARAL/
http://www.space.aau.dk/aausat3/
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