Heweliusz (also called BRITE-PL) is the second Polish scientific

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

launched in 2014 as part of the Bright-star Target Explorer (BRITE) programme. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Chang Zheng 4B rocket in August 2014. Heweliusz is an

optical astronomy Visible-light astronomy encompasses a wide variety of observations via telescopes that are sensitive in the range of visible light (optical telescopes). Visible-light astronomy is part of optical astronomy, and differs from astronomies based on in ...

spacecraft built by the Space Research Centre of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

and operated by Centrum Astronomiczne im. Mikołaja Kopernika PAN; it is one of two Polish contributions to the BRITE constellation along with the

Lem Lem may refer to: Places * 3836 Lem, an asteroid named after Stanisław Lem * , a municipality in Jutland People Given name or nickname (Alphabetical by surname) * Lemuel Lem Barney (born 1945), American football player * Lem Billings (1916– ...

satellite. It is named after

Johannes Hevelius Johannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish: * * * * * * * Some sources refer to Hevelius as German: * * * * *of the Royal Society * (in German also known as ''Hevel''; pl, Jan Heweliusz; – 28 January 1687) was a councillor ...

Features

Heweliusz is the third Polish

(after

PW-Sat PW-Sat is a series of satellites that includes the first Polish artificial satellite which was launched 13 February 2012 from ELA-1 at Guiana Space Centre aboard Italian-built Vega launch vehicle during its maiden voyage. PW-Sat1's mission was ...

and

) ever launched. Along with Lem,

TUGSAT-1 TUGSAT-1, also known as BRITE-Austria and CanX-3B, is the first Austrian satellite. It is an optical astronomy spacecraft operated by the Graz University of Technology as part of the international BRIght-star Target Explorer programme. Details ...

UniBRITE-1 UniBRITE-1 is, along with TUGSAT-1, one of the first two Austrian satellites to be launched. Along with TUGSAT, it operates as part of the BRIght Target Explorer constellation of satellites. The two spacecraft were launched aboard the same rocke ...

and

BRITE-Toronto BRITE-Constellation is an ongoing space mission carrying out two-band photometry in wide fields with a constellation of six (presently, three operational) BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE) Small satellite#Nanosatellites, nanosatellites. The mission w ...

, it is one from a constellation of six nanosatellites of the BRIght-star Target Explorer project, operated by a consortium of universities from Canada,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and Poland. Heweliusz was developed and manufactured by the Space Research Centre of the

between 2010 and 2012, based around the

Generic Nanosatellite Bus Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...

, and had a mass at launch of . The satellite is used, along with four other operating spacecraft, to conduct photometric observations of stars with an

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

of greater than 4.0 as seen from Earth. Heweliusz was one of two Polish BRITE satellites launched, along with the Lem spacecraft. Four more satellites—two Austrian and two Canadian—were launched at different dates. Heweliusz observes the stars in the red color range whereas Lem does it

in blue ''In Blue'' is the third studio album by Irish pop rock band the Corrs, released in 2000 which saw the band become known in the United States. The title of the album comes from a lyric in the song " Give Me a Reason". As well as the UK number ...

. Due to the multicolour option, geometrical and thermal effects in the analysis of the observed phenomena are separated. None of the much larger satellites, such as

MOST Most or Möst or ''variation'', may refer to: Places * Most, Kardzhali Province, a village in Bulgaria * Most (city), a city in the Czech Republic ** Most District, a district surrounding the city ** Most Basin, a lowland named after the city ** A ...

and

CoRoT CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly th ...

, has this colour option; this is crucial in the diagnosis of the internal structure of stars. Heweliusz photometrically measures low-level oscillations and temperature variations in stars brighter than visual magnitude (4.0), with unprecedented precision and temporal coverage not achievable through terrestrial based methods.

Launch

The Heweliusz satellite was launched as a secondary payload on a

Long March 4B The Long March 4B (), also known as the Chang Zheng 4B, CZ-4B and LM-4B is a Chinese expendable orbital Launch vehicle. Launched from Launch Complex 1 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, it is a 3-stage launch vehicle, used mostly to place ...

rocket, whose primary payload was the Chinese

Gaofen Gaofen () is a series of Chinese high-resolution Earth imaging satellites launched as part of the China High-resolution Earth Observation System (CHEOS) program. CHEOS is a state-sponsored, civilian Earth-observation program used for agric ...

2 earth-observation satellite. The launch was subcontracted to the

China Great Wall Industry Corporation The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, or CASC, is the main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has subsidiaries which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, strategic ...

and

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, or CASC, is the main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has subsidiaries which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, strategic ...

(CASC). The launch took place at 03:15 UTC on 19 August 2014 from the

Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) also known as ''Base 25'' (), is a People's Republic of China space and defense launch facility (spaceport). It is situated in Kelan County, Xinzhou, Shanxi Province and is the second of four launch ...

, and the rocket deployed all of its payloads successfully. Although the other satellites in the

BRITE BRITE-Constellation is an ongoing space mission carrying out two-band photometry in wide fields with a constellation of six (presently, three operational) BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE) nanosatellites. The mission was built by a consortium of thr ...

constellation used the Canadian XPOD nanosatellite deployer, Heweliusz uses an indigenous Polish system. The DRAGON nanosatellite deployer was designed specifically for this mission by the Space Research Centre, in collaboration with the SRC spinoff company Astronika. Development, manufacturing, testing, and integration of the system took only two months.

Explanatory notes

References

{{BRITE Spacecraft launched in 2014 Satellites of Poland Space telescopes 2014 in Poland Spacecraft launched by Long March rockets

Features

Launch

See also

Explanatory notes

References