New Mars Forums

cIclops

Member

Registered: 2005-06-16

Posts: 3,230

Re: ST5 microsats

NASA TV had some great live shots of the Orbital LC-1011 air launching the Pegasus XL except for the very first moments after ignition when the picture broke up lol. All three ST5 microsats were placed in orbit, the last one 16 mins after launch. Nice job Orbital.

ST5 Homepage

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[color=darkred]Let's go to Mars and far beyond -  triple NASA's budget ![/color] [url=irc://freenode#space]  #space channel !! [/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/user/c1cl0ps]   - videos !!![/url]

Yang Liwei Rocket

Member

Registered: 2004-03-03

Posts: 993

Re: ST5 microsats

very good project by NASA

the Euros and Chinese are already doing a joint mission on in this area - its called Cluster/Doublestar, the European DoubleStar project includes seven instruments that are identical to those currently flying on the four ESA Cluster spacecraft, the mission was Launched in December 2003 from China.

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'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )

cIclops

Member

Registered: 2005-06-16

Posts: 3,230

Re: ST5 microsats

Mission completed according to this NASA News release

NASA's three orbiting micro-satellites known as Space Technology 5 have completed their planned 90-day mission. The mission team is shutting down the spacecraft to conclude operations on Friday, June 30.

The mission primarily focused on flight testing miniaturized satellites in the harsh environment of space and evaluating their ability to make research-quality scientific measurements.
The satellites were launched on March 22. Each fully fueled satellite weighed approximately 55 pounds when launched and is about the size of a 13-inch television.

A major milestone of the mission was reached when the spacecraft assumed a constellation formation on May 24. The satellites lined up in nearly identical orbits, like three pearls on a necklace, approximately 220 miles apart. Reaching formation required seven maneuvers using miniaturized micro-thrusters. Each spacecraft has a single micro-thruster the size of a quarter to perform both attitude- and orbit-adjustment maneuvers.

The mission demonstrated the benefits of using a constellation of spacecraft to perform scientific studies of the beautiful auroral displays that occur near Earth's polar regions. The spacecraft simultaneously traversed electric current sheets and measured the magnetic field using miniature magnetometers.

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[color=darkred]Let's go to Mars and far beyond -  triple NASA's budget ![/color] [url=irc://freenode#space]  #space channel !! [/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/user/c1cl0ps]   - videos !!![/url]

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: ST5 microsats

Pretty impressive, kudos to the people that did this for 'spare change'