Session
Technical Session VI: Small but Mighty
Abstract
We present initial flight data from the first Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX) satellite. Launched on 20 November 2011, RAX-1 was a joint venture between the University of Michigan and SRI International. Its primary mission objective was to study small-scale plasma density irregularities in the Earth’s ionosphere. Several electrostatic ion plasma instabilities are known to spawn magnetic field-aligned irregularities (FAI), or dense plasma clouds that can disrupt communication between Earth and orbiting spacecraft. The RAX mission utilized a bistatic radar configuration; the RAX spacecraft is the radar receiver and the transmitters are several world-wide incoherent scatter radars. The primary radar is located in Poker Flat, Alaska. We describe initial flight results from the mission. The radar receiver was successfully operated and performed better than estimated on orbit. RAX-1 bus performance was also successful except for the solar power generation system. A systematic fault in the panels resulted in loss of power about sixty days into the mission. Despite this failure, RAX-1 demonstrated that novel science is possible and useful on small nanosatellite platforms. We describe lessons learned from the mission. We also give a brief overview of our continued development effort on the RAX mission in preparation for a late 2011 launch of a second spacecraft, RAX-2.
Presentation Slides
Initial Flight Assessment of the Radio Aurora Explorer
We present initial flight data from the first Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX) satellite. Launched on 20 November 2011, RAX-1 was a joint venture between the University of Michigan and SRI International. Its primary mission objective was to study small-scale plasma density irregularities in the Earth’s ionosphere. Several electrostatic ion plasma instabilities are known to spawn magnetic field-aligned irregularities (FAI), or dense plasma clouds that can disrupt communication between Earth and orbiting spacecraft. The RAX mission utilized a bistatic radar configuration; the RAX spacecraft is the radar receiver and the transmitters are several world-wide incoherent scatter radars. The primary radar is located in Poker Flat, Alaska. We describe initial flight results from the mission. The radar receiver was successfully operated and performed better than estimated on orbit. RAX-1 bus performance was also successful except for the solar power generation system. A systematic fault in the panels resulted in loss of power about sixty days into the mission. Despite this failure, RAX-1 demonstrated that novel science is possible and useful on small nanosatellite platforms. We describe lessons learned from the mission. We also give a brief overview of our continued development effort on the RAX mission in preparation for a late 2011 launch of a second spacecraft, RAX-2.
