MicroMAS: A First Step Towards a Nanosatellite Constellation for Global Storm Observation

Presenter Information

William Blackwell, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
G. Allen, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
C. Galbraith, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
R. Leslie, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
I. Osaretin, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M. Scarito, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mike Shields, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
E. Thompson, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
D. Toher, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
D. Townzen, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A. Vogel, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
R. Wezalis, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kerri Cahoy, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Miller, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Anne Marinan, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ryan Kingsbury, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Evan Wise, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sung Wook Paek, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Eric Peters, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Meghan Prinkey, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pratik Davé, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Brian Coffee, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Neal Erickson, University of Massachusetts

Session

Technical Session XI: Around the Corner

Abstract

The Micro-sized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite (MicroMAS) is a dual-spinning 3U CubeSat equipped with a nine-channel passive microwave spectrometer observing near the 118.75-GHz oxygen absorption line. The focus of this first MicroMAS mission is to observe convective thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, and hurricanes. The payload, housed in the “lower” 1U of the dual-spinning 3U CubeSat, is mechanically rotated approximately once per second as the spacecraft orbits the Earth, resulting in a cross-track scanned beam with a FWHM beamwidth of 2.5 degrees and an approximately 20-km diameter footprint at nadir incidence from a nominal altitude of 400 km. The MicroMAS flight unit is currently being developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the MIT Space Systems Laboratory, the MIT Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Department of Radio Astronomy for a 2013 launch on the Cygnus-2 ISS resupply mission.