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Microsatellite (spaceflight)
A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites can be built small to reduce the large economic cost of launch vehicles and the costs associated with construction. Miniature satellites, especially in large numbers, may be more useful than fewer, larger ones for some purposes – for example, gathering of scientific data and radio relay. Technical challenges in the construction of small satellites may include the lack of sufficient power storage or of room for a propulsion system. Rationales One rationale for miniaturizing satellites is to reduce the cost; heavier satellites require larger rockets with greater thrust that also have greater cost to finance. In contrast, smaller and lighter satellites require smaller and cheaper launch vehicles and can sometimes be launched in multipl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estcube-1 2012-12-27
ESTCube-1 is the first Estonian satellite and first satellite in the world to attempt to use an electric solar wind sail (E-sail). It was launched on 7 May 2013 aboard Vega VV02 carrier rocket and successfully deployed into orbit. The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10×10×11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg. The mission ended officially on 17 February 2015 and it was said that during this time it resulted in 29 bachelor's and 19 master's dissertations, 5 doctoral theses and 4 start-ups. The deployment of the E-sail tether was unsuccessful, and thus no measurements were taken of the E-sail or of the plasma braking deployment system. The last signal from ESTCube-1 was received on 19 May 2015. Scientific purpose Developed as part of the Estonian Student Satellite Program, ESTCube-1 was an educational project in which university and high school students participated. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wet Mass
In aerospace engineering, mass ratio is a measure of the efficiency of a rocket. It describes how much more massive the vehicle is with propellant than without; that is, the ratio of the rocket's ''wet mass'' (vehicle plus contents plus propellant) to its ''dry mass'' (vehicle plus contents). A more efficient rocket design requires less propellant to achieve a given goal, and would therefore have a lower mass ratio; however, for any given efficiency a higher mass ratio typically permits the vehicle to achieve higher delta-v. The mass ratio is a useful quantity for back-of-the-envelope rocketry calculations: it is an easy number to derive from either \Delta or from rocket and propellant mass, and therefore serves as a handy bridge between the two. It is also a useful for getting an impression of the size of a rocket: while two rockets with mass fractions of, say, 92% and 95% may appear similar, the corresponding mass ratios of 12.5 and 20 clearly indicate that the latter syst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electron (rocket)
Electron is a two-stage, partially recoverable orbital launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, an American aerospace company with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. Electron was developed to service the commercial small satellite launch market. Its Rutherford engines are the first electric-pump-fed engine to power an orbital-class rocket. Electron is often flown with a kickstage or Rocket Lab's Photon spacecraft. Although the rocket was designed to be expendable, Rocket Lab has recovered the first stage twice and is working towards the capability of reusing the booster. The Flight 26 (F26) booster has featured the first helicopter catch recovery attempt. In December 2016, Electron completed flight qualification. The first rocket was launched on 25 May 2017 in a flight called "It's a Test", reaching space but not achieving orbit due to a glitch in communication equipment on the ground. During its second flight on 21 January 2018, Electron reached orbit and deployed three Cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab is a public American aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider, with a New Zealand subsidiary. The company operates lightweight Electron orbital rockets, which provide dedicated launches for small satellites. Rocket Lab also plans to build a larger Neutron rocket as early as 2024. Electron rockets have launched 26 times from either Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand or the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in the United States. Two attempts have been made at recovery of the Electron booster. As of 2022, Rocket Lab is developing the bigger Neutron reusable unibody rocket; Photon satellite buses; and Rutherford, Curie , HyperCurie, and Archimedes rocket engines. The company was founded in New Zealand in 2006. By 2009, the successful launch of Ātea-1 made Rocket Lab the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space. The company then established a headquarter in California in 2013 and developed the expendable Electron rocket. The f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starlink
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to 45 countries. It also aims for global mobile phone service after 2023. SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019. As of December 2022, Starlink consists of over 3,300 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), which communicate with designated ground transceivers. In total, nearly 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed, with a possible later extension to 42,000. SpaceX announced reaching more than one million subscribers in December 2022. The SpaceX satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington houses the Starlink research, development, manufacturing, and orbit control teams. The cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in May 2018 to be at least US$10 billion. SpaceX expects more than $30 billion in revenue by 2025 from its satellite constellation, while revenues ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirale
Spirale is a French government programme to develop an early warning system which will use infrared satellite imagery to detect the flights of ballistic missiles during their boost phase, just after launch. SPIRALE is an acronym which stands for "''Système Préparatoire Infra-Rouge pour l’ALErte''", literally "infrared preparatory system for alert". The demonstrator system includes two microsatellites and an alert and monitoring ground segment. The satellites have been launched by Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ... on 12 February 2009. References Missile defense Spacecraft launched in 2009 Satellites of France {{France-spacecraft-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SSOT (satellite)
The Satellite System for Terrestrial Observation, Sistema Satelital para Observación de la Tierra (SSOT), also known as FASat-Charlie, is a Chilean satellite which was launched on December 16, 2011. The objective of the SSOT is to have a satellite system for the observation of Earth based on international cooperation. The project was commissioned by the Ministry of Defense from the European space manufacturer EADS Astrium - based in Toulouse, France - and had an acquisition cost of 72.5 million dollars, according to the contract signed on July 25, 2008. The Soyuz rocket was used to put the satellite into orbit, which was launched in French Guiana from the spaceport of Kourou, currently used by the European Space Agency. SSOT is a Miniaturized satellite built on the Myriade satellite bus by EADS Astrium. It was part of a six-satellite payload along with Pléiades-HR 1, ELISA 1, ELISA 2, ELISA 3 and ELISA 4. Background Prior to FASat-Charlie, Chile had two experiences with m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ELISA (satellite)
ELISA (ELectronic Intelligence by SAtellite) is a suite of four French military satellites launched on 17 December 2011 from Arianespace's Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. It consists of microsatellites ELISA 1 (or ELISA W11, COSPAR ID: 2011-076A), ELISA 2 (or ELISA E12, COSPAR ID: 2011-076D), ELISA 3 (or ELISA W23, COSPAR ID: 2011-076C), and ELISA 4 (or ELISA E24, COSPAR ID: 2011-076B) The entire ELISA suite was launched on a single Soyuz ST-A launch vehicle, along with Pléiades-1 and SSOT. The ELISA programme is a demonstrator meant to pave the way for a planned Signals intelligence constellation called CERES. The ELISA satellites are in a Low Earth orbit a few kilometres from each other to record radar and radio transmissions. Since 2014, they are used as a pre-operational system. The satellites are built around the Myriade microsatellite bus. See also * ESSAIM - another French military SIGINT microsatellite project * CERES Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TARANIS
In Celtic mythology, Taranis (Proto-Celtic: *''Toranos'', earlier ''*Tonaros''; Latin: Taranus, earlier Tanarus) is the god of thunder, who was worshipped primarily in Gaul, Hispania, Britain, and Ireland, but also in the Rhineland and Danube regions, amongst others. Taranis, along with Esus and Toutatis, was mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan in his epic poem ''Pharsalia'' as a Celtic deity to whom human sacrificial offerings were made. Taranis was associated, as was the Cyclops Brontes ("thunder") in Greek mythology, with the wheel. Many representations of a bearded god with a thunderbolt in one hand and a wheel in the other have been recovered from Gaul, where this deity apparently came to be syncretised with Jupiter. Name and etymology The Proto-Celtic form of the name is reconstructed as *''Toranos'' ('Thunder'), which derives through metathesis (switch of sounds) from an earlier *''Tonaros'', itself from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stem for 'thunder', *''(s)tenh₂- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MICROSCOPE (satellite)
A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope. There are many types of microscopes, and they may be grouped in different ways. One way is to describe the method an instrument uses to interact with a sample and produce images, either by sending a beam of light or electrons through a sample in its optical path, by detecting photon emissions from a sample, or by scanning across and a short distance from the surface of a sample using a probe. The most common microscope (and the first to be invented) is the optical microscope, which uses lenses to refract visible light that passed through a thinly sectioned sample to produce an observable image. Other major types of microscopes are the fluorescence microscope, electron microscope (both the transmis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Picard (satellite)
PICARD is a satellite dedicated to the simultaneous measurement of the absolute total and spectral solar irradiance, the diameter and solar shape, and to the Sun's interior probing by the helioseismology method. These measurements obtained throughout the mission allow study of their variations as a function of solar activity. It launched, along with the Prisma spacecraft, on 15 June 2010 on a Dnepr launcher from Dombarovskiy Cosmodrome, near Yasny, Russia. The mission, originally planned for two years, ended on 4 April 2014. Objectives The objectives of the PICARD mission are to improve our knowledge of: * the functioning of our star through new observations, * the influence of the solar activity on the climate of the Earth. History The PICARD mission was named after the French astronomer of the 17th century Jean Picard (1620–1682) who achieved the first accurate measurements of the solar diameter. These measurements are especially important as they were made during a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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