Polish satellite BRITE Heweliusz model in Gdansk 19

Lem (also called BRITE-PL) is the first Polish scientific artificial

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 radioi ...

. It was launched in November 2013 as part of the Bright-star Target Explorer (BRITE) programme. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Dnepr rocket. Named after the Polish

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

writer

Stanisław Lem Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical ...

, it is an optical astronomy 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 o ...

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

Features

Lem is the first Polish scientific satellite, and the second (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 ...

) ever launched. Along with Heweliusz,

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) nanosatellites. The mission was built by a consortium of thr ...

, 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. Lem was developed and manufactured by the Space Research Centre of the

in 2011, based around the Generic Nanosatellite Bus, and had a mass at launch of (plus another 7 kg for the XPOD separation system). 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 ...

brighter than 4.0 as seen from Earth. Lem was one of two Polish BRITE satellites launched, along with the Heweliusz spacecraft. Four more satellites—two Austrian and two Canadian—were launched at different dates.

Mission

Lem observes the stars in the blue color range, whereas Heweliusz does it in red. 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. Lem 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 Lem satellite was launched from the Russian Yasny air base aboard a

Dnepr Dnepr may refer to: *Dnieper, a river flowing through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea * Dnepr (motorcycle), a Ukraininan motocycle brand * Dnepr (rocket), a 1999 space launch vehicle *Dnepr radar Dnepr may refer to: *Dnieper, a river ...

through the BRITE-PL Project satellite launch programme established in 2009 by the Space Research Centre of the

and The Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in cooperation with University of Toronto. The launch was subcontracted to the Russian Ministry of Defence which launched the satellites using

rocket from the Yasny air base along with 33 other satellites. The launch took place at 07:10 ( UTC) on 21 November 2013, and the rocket deployed all of its payloads successfully.

Explanatory notes

References

{{BRITE Spacecraft launched in 2013 Satellites of Poland Space telescopes 2013 in Poland Spacecraft launched by Dnepr rockets Commemoration of Stanisław Lem

Features

Mission

Launch

See also

Explanatory notes

References