FASTSAT, FASTRAC-A, FASTRAC-B, FalconSat-4, OREOS, RAX (STP-S26) - Minotaur IV - Kodiak LP-1 - 20.11.10 01:25 UTC

[Sharicoff]

Однако пока непонятно, прошло разделение или нет.

Подробности:
http://www.facebook.com/fastracsats
http://twitter.com/fastracsats

[Sharicoff]

Судя по-всему, FASTRAC разделился 22 марта около 11:35 UTC.

Sara Lily and Emma were separated this morning at around 6:35 AM CDT, a new and exciting phase of the mission now begins!!!

Roland Zurmely
Heard FAST1 at 18:47:33 and FAST2 at 18:49:31 UTC in Sete Lagoas Brasil
GH70un

Космическое командование с раздачей номеров пока не торопится.

[Sharicoff]

Космическое командование с раздачей номеров пока не торопится.

Выдали номерок: FAST 2 (USA 228)    2010-062M    37380

[Александр Репной]

Вчера, незадолго до полуночи нашел парус. Объект был яркий, но в реальности он пролетал с небольшим запозданием по расчетным тле, на эпоху от 16 апреля на него. А сегодня уже не видел его.
http://satobs.org/seesat/Apr-2011/0265.html

[Имxотеп]

Наблюдал проход паруса почти через зенит, неяркий объект 3-4m, с высокой точностью следует предсказаниям последних тле.



Похоже обещанный deorbit в течении 70-120 дней после раскрытия серьезно откладывается. За 3 месяца парус потерял лишь 40 км высоты и к  плотным слоям дойдет не раньше осени.
Инттересно было бы оценить эффективный баллистический коэффициент паруса.  Как пересчитать  B*=0.010263 из тле в человеческое соотношение площадь/масса?

[Брабонт]

Видимо, как-то так. Чему в данном случае равен Cd, вычислительная гидродинамика скромно умалчивает. Возможно, близкие российской душе 0.5 (сфера, конус) были бы допустимым приближением.

[Александр Репной]

Ральф отснял парусник.
http://freeimagehosting.nl/pics/7775d2c29d723df5a1a4e9ece044519a.jpg
http://freeimagehosting.nl/pics/44200650b3b54feb6cc8402117d65aaf.jpg
http://freeimagehosting.nl/pics/0be846249c061cb50d60eff23638c30f.jpg

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NASA's Nanosail-D 'Sails' Home -- Mission Complete



http://www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/sets/72157607379989937/with/5793295459/

After spending more than 240 days "sailing" around the Earth, NASA's NanoSail-D -- a nanosatellite that deployed NASA's first-ever solar sail in low-Earth orbit -- has successfully completed its Earth orbiting mission.

Launched to space Nov. 19, 2010 as a payload on NASA's FASTSAT, a small satellite, NanoSail-D's sail deployed on Jan. 20.

The flight phase of the mission successfully demonstrated a deorbit capability that could potentially be used to bring down decommissioned satellites and space debris by re-entering and totally burning up in the Earth's atmosphere. The team continues to analyze the orbital data to determine how future satellites can use this new technology.

A main objective of the NanoSail-D mission was to demonstrate and test the deorbiting capabilities of a large low mass high surface area sail.

"The NanoSail-D mission produced a wealth of data that will be useful in understanding how these types of passive deorbit devices react to the upper atmosphere," said Joe Casas, FASTSAT project scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

"The data collected from the mission is being evaluated, said Casas, in conjunction with data from FASTSAT science experiments intended to study and better understand the drag influences of Earth's upper atmosphere on satellite orbital re-entry."

The FASTSAT science experiments are led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and sponsored by the Department of Defense Space Experiments Review Board which is supported by the Department of Defense Space Test Program.

Initial assessment indicates NanoSail-D exhibited the predicted cyclical deorbit rate behavior that was only previously theorized by researchers.

"The final rate of descent depended on the nature of solar activity, the density of the atmosphere surrounding NanoSail-D and the angle of the sail to the orbital track," said Dean Alhorn, principal investigator for NanoSail-D at Marshall Space Flight Center. "It is astounding to see how the satellite reacted to the sun's solar pressure. The recent solar flares increased the drag and brought the nanosatellite back home quickly."

NanoSail-D orbited the Earth for 240 days performing well beyond expectations and burned up during reentry to Earth's atmosphere on Sept. 17.

NASA formed a partnership with Spaceweather.com to engage the amateur astronomy community to submit images of the orbiting NanoSail-D solar sail during the flight phase of the mission. NanoSail-D was a very elusive target to spot in the night sky -- at times very bright and other times difficult to see at all. Many ground observations were made over the course of the mission. The imaging challenge concluded with NanoSail-D's deorbit. Winners will be announced in early 2012.

For more information, visit: http://www.nanosail.org/

The NanoSail-D experiment was managed at the Marshall Center, and designed and built by engineers in Huntsville. Additional design, testing, integration and execution of key spacecraft bus development and deployment support operation activities were conducted by engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The experiment is the result of a collaborative partnership between NASA; the Department of Defense Space Test Program, and the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, Dynetics Inc. and Mantech Nexolve Corp.

For more information about NanoSail-D visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/nanosaild.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/11-148.html

[Salo]

http://spaceref.com/commercial-space/ball-aerospaces-stpsat-2-completes-experimental-mission.html

Ball Aerospace's STPSat-2 Completes Experimental Mission

 By Keith Cowing
 Posted April 13, 2012 11:35 AM



Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. will provide an additional year of support for the STPSat-2 spacecraft, following completion of the initial experimental mission requirements that ended successfully on Jan. 31, 2012.

The STPSat series of satellites successfully prove the concept of standard interface vehicles for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Space Development & Test Directorate (SMC/SD). The operational mission for STPSat-2, which launched on Nov. 19, 2010, has been extended for an additional year. Under contract to the SD at Kirtland Air Force Base, Ball Aerospace will continue to provide space vehicle support to the satellite through Feb. 1, 2013.

The STPSat-2 spacecraft provides a standard interface, which is able to support a variety of experimental and risk reduction payloads at different low-Earth orbits and is compatible with multiple launch vehicles. The flight-proven Ball Configurable Platform 100 (BCP-100) standard interface bus can accommodate up to four independent payloads with separate power and data interfaces.

"The STPSat-2 provides the affordable and resilient space capability the Air Force is looking for," said David L. Taylor, Ball Aerospace president and CEO. "Following a flawless first year on-orbit, this game-changing spacecraft has proven to be an outstanding collaboration between Ball and the Air Force."

The three payloads aboard STPSat-2 continue to operate nominally. STPSat-3, an identical spacecraft to STPSat-2 Ball Aerospace is now complete. STPSat-3 is expected to launch in 2013 aboard a Minotaur I.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical missions for national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. For more information visit www.ballaerospace.com.

Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) is a supplier of high quality packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2011 sales of more than $8.6 billion. For the latest Ball news and for other company information, please visit http://www.ball.com.

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[instml]

NASA's First Minisatellite Mission Comes to Successful End



After two successful years of on-orbit operations, NASA's Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT, mission is coming to an end. FASTSAT successfully demonstrated a capability to build, deploy and operate a science and technology flight mission at lower costs than previously possible.
 
 The satellite was designed, developed and tested over a period of 14 months at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., in partnership with the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation and Dynetics, both of Huntsville, and the Department of Defense's Space Test Program.
 
 FASTSAT used off-the-shelf commercial hardware provided by NASA and a group of industry partners. Weighing slightly less than 400 pounds and carrying six technology and atmospheric science experiments, FASTSAT provided an opportunity to conduct innovative research and mature the readiness of new technologies for future missions.
 
 "FASTSAT demonstrated that an 'outside the box' solution afforded a highly synergistic concept which satisfied experiment, payload and launch schedule requirements," said Mark Boudreaux, FASTSAT project manager at the Marshall Center. "This successful mission brings us closer to realizing a unique, small-satellite platform and the environment needed to perform low-cost research in space."
 
 FASTSAT was launched by the DoD Space Test Program from Kodiak, Alaska, in November 2010, and completed two years on orbit. It served as an autonomous research laboratory in low-Earth orbit, containing all the necessary resources to conduct scientific and technology research operations for all onboard experiments.
 
 "This project has validated the effectiveness of a commercial/government partnership, leveraging the resources and capabilities of Dynetics and the expertise of the Marshall Space Flight Center," said Steve Cook, Dynetics' director of Space Technologies.
 
 Marty Kress, executive director of the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation, agreed. "FASTSAT provided a comprehensive and cost-effective capability, which resulted in affordable and flexible access to space for a diverse set of users," he said. "Such a minisatellite capability is an invaluable asset, making future partnerships between government, industry and academia more viable and mutually beneficial than ever before."
 
 Among the NASA innovations enabled by FASTSAT during its mission to test low-technology-readiness experiments were: the Miniature Imager for Neutral Ionospheric Atoms and Magnetospheric Electrons, or MINI-ME; the Plasma Impedance Spectrum Analyzer, or PISA; and FASTSAT's ability to eject a nanosatellite, NanoSail-D, from a minisatellite.
 
 MINI-ME, managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., continues to collect data on neutral atoms and electrons from Earth's magnetosphere in a variety of conditions. The data collected from MINI-ME is helping NASA scientists and engineers design two similar instruments for a sounding rocket mission planned for early 2013. That mission, dubbed VISIONS for "visualizing ion outflow via neutral atom imaging during a substorm," will aid researchers in better understanding space weather.
 
 "Among the MINI-ME science results are the first observations of neutral molecular outflow," said Mike Collier, principal investigator for MINI-ME. "Data from MINI-ME are helping the VISIONS investigators optimize the mission science return."
 
 PISA, also managed by Goddard, has completed 15,000 hours of observations and gathered more than 15 gigabytes of raw data captured in a variety of locations and environments during the mission.
 
 "FASTSAT has been a great opportunity to test the PISA instrument concept, while gathering valuable data about how the ionosphere changes over time as the sun gets closer to its 11-year peak of activity," said Doug Rowland, principal investigator for PISA. "We've seen the ionosphere go from being 'depressed' close to launch, to a more 'inflated' state over the last two years.
 
 "With the strong need for improved understanding of our space environment, platforms such as FASTSAT and instruments such as PISA are going to become more important, providing low-cost, flexible platforms for space environment monitoring and scientific measurements," Rowland added.
 
 The NanoSail-D satellite was jointly designed and built by NASA engineers from the Marshall Center and NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Key sail design support was provided by ManTech/NeXolve Corp. of Huntsville. The NanoSail-D experiment was managed by Marshall and was jointly sponsored as a DoD Space Test Program payload by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation.
 
 The deployment of Nanosail-D from FASTSAT was the first time NASA deployed a solar sail in low-Earth orbit. "The NanoSail-D mission produced a wealth of data that will be useful in understanding how these types of passive deorbit devices react to the upper atmosphere," said Joe Casas, FASTSAT project scientist at the Marshall Center.
 
 "The data collected from the mission is intended to study and better understand the drag influences of Earth's upper atmosphere on satellite orbital re-entry," Casas said.
 
 Thirteen Huntsville-area firms and the University of Alabama in Huntsville were part of the project team.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/fastsat/12-123.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/fastsat/
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/pdf/709025main_FASTSAT_Facts_11_2012.pdf