All 2015 Content
Session
Technical Session V: Year in Review
Abstract
Recent technological developments have enabled a CubeSat-based targeted science investigation to unravel a mysterious process that results in the Earth being bombarded by relativistic electrons. The Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics (FIREBIRD) mission is an-NSF funded collaboration carried out by Montana State University, the University of New Hampshire, The Aerospace Corporation and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Four satellites were placed into low Earth orbit in pairs on December 6, 2013 (FIREBIRD-I) and January 31, 2015 (FIREBIRD-II) as auxiliary payloads under NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. Enabling technologies carried on the twin FIREBIRD-II CubeSats include Vanguard Space Technologies, Inc. high-efficiency body-mounted solar panels affixed to the four 10x15 cm sidewalls of each 1.5U CubeSat. These solar panels provide energy to a custom MSU-designed-and-built electrical power system that includes two 2600mAh Li-Ion cells with integrated battery protection circuitry. Each spacecraft carried GPS receivers enabling precise timing and position information necessary for science operations. These technologies together with Montana State’s custom avionics and operations software (built upon L-3’s In-Control package) enabled exciting, unique, and insightful measurements of the near-Earth radiation environment to unravel the spatio-temporal ambiguities of relativistic electron bursts previously observed only by single spacecraft. Without these technologies the mission would not have been possible utilizing CubeSat-class spacecraft measuring merely 15x10x10 cm.
Flight System Technologies Enabling the Twin-CubeSat FIREBIRD-II Scientific Mission
Recent technological developments have enabled a CubeSat-based targeted science investigation to unravel a mysterious process that results in the Earth being bombarded by relativistic electrons. The Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics (FIREBIRD) mission is an-NSF funded collaboration carried out by Montana State University, the University of New Hampshire, The Aerospace Corporation and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Four satellites were placed into low Earth orbit in pairs on December 6, 2013 (FIREBIRD-I) and January 31, 2015 (FIREBIRD-II) as auxiliary payloads under NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. Enabling technologies carried on the twin FIREBIRD-II CubeSats include Vanguard Space Technologies, Inc. high-efficiency body-mounted solar panels affixed to the four 10x15 cm sidewalls of each 1.5U CubeSat. These solar panels provide energy to a custom MSU-designed-and-built electrical power system that includes two 2600mAh Li-Ion cells with integrated battery protection circuitry. Each spacecraft carried GPS receivers enabling precise timing and position information necessary for science operations. These technologies together with Montana State’s custom avionics and operations software (built upon L-3’s In-Control package) enabled exciting, unique, and insightful measurements of the near-Earth radiation environment to unravel the spatio-temporal ambiguities of relativistic electron bursts previously observed only by single spacecraft. Without these technologies the mission would not have been possible utilizing CubeSat-class spacecraft measuring merely 15x10x10 cm.
