Abstract
During the design of the NASA Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission of a constellation of five identical micro-satellites studying the electromagnetic activity in near Earth space responsible for the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights, there were significant challenges to meet mission objectives for a low mass, low power, thermally safe, and attitude control as it pertains to multiple deployables for the constellation of five identical spacecraft. The design risks were mitigated and verified by test and analysis and on February 17, 2007 the THEMIS mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This paper will revisit some of the design and analysis attributes and determine the flight validation of these attributes based on one year plus on orbit performance. The comparison to on-orbit engineering data will be compared to design and analysis predicts in terms of the spacecraft bus performance and the differences observed. Also, included will be lessons learned from the perspective of operations.
Presentation Slides
THEMIS Post Launch Spacecraft Bus Systems Performance Validation: Comparison to Systems Design and Analysis Attributes
During the design of the NASA Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission of a constellation of five identical micro-satellites studying the electromagnetic activity in near Earth space responsible for the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights, there were significant challenges to meet mission objectives for a low mass, low power, thermally safe, and attitude control as it pertains to multiple deployables for the constellation of five identical spacecraft. The design risks were mitigated and verified by test and analysis and on February 17, 2007 the THEMIS mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This paper will revisit some of the design and analysis attributes and determine the flight validation of these attributes based on one year plus on orbit performance. The comparison to on-orbit engineering data will be compared to design and analysis predicts in terms of the spacecraft bus performance and the differences observed. Also, included will be lessons learned from the perspective of operations.
