Session
Technical Session V: Existing Missions - What's Flying
Abstract
In the age of "Faster, Better, Cheaper", NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has been looking for a way to implement university based science missions for significantly less money. The University Explorer (UNEX) program is the result. UNEX missions are designed for rapid turnaround with fixed budgets in the $10-$15 million US dollar range. The CHIPS project was selected in 1998. The CHIPS mission passed the Design Verification Review in April 2001 and is now proceeding into implementation with a launch in mid-2002. Many lessons have already been learned from the CHIPS UNEX project. The 2000 paper discussed the early issues surrounding the use of commercial satellite constellations and the politics of small satellites using foreign launchers. The difficulties of finding a spacecraft in the UNEX price range were highlighted. The advantages of utilizing Internet technologies from the earliest phases of the project through communications with the spacecraft on orbit were discussed. The 2001 paper will discuss the implementation status of CHIPS, the first of this new class of NASA mission, and the lessons learned. The current state of the program will be summarized and the project’s plans for the future will be charted.
Status of CHIPS: A NASA University Explorer Astronomy Mission
In the age of "Faster, Better, Cheaper", NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has been looking for a way to implement university based science missions for significantly less money. The University Explorer (UNEX) program is the result. UNEX missions are designed for rapid turnaround with fixed budgets in the $10-$15 million US dollar range. The CHIPS project was selected in 1998. The CHIPS mission passed the Design Verification Review in April 2001 and is now proceeding into implementation with a launch in mid-2002. Many lessons have already been learned from the CHIPS UNEX project. The 2000 paper discussed the early issues surrounding the use of commercial satellite constellations and the politics of small satellites using foreign launchers. The difficulties of finding a spacecraft in the UNEX price range were highlighted. The advantages of utilizing Internet technologies from the earliest phases of the project through communications with the spacecraft on orbit were discussed. The 2001 paper will discuss the implementation status of CHIPS, the first of this new class of NASA mission, and the lessons learned. The current state of the program will be summarized and the project’s plans for the future will be charted.
