DLR-Tubsat ( a.k.a. ''TUBSAT'') was a German

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Ear ...

microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. ...

, developed in a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between

Technical University of Berlin The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

(TUB) and

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (german: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany ...

(DLR). TUB was responsible for the satellite bus and DLR was responsible for the payload. The satellite was launched into

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

on 26 May 1999, on the fifth mission of the

PSLV The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites ...

program PSLV-C2. The launch took place in the Sriharikota Launching Range. The satellite had an expected life of one year.

Mission objectives

The prime objective of DLR-Tubsat was to test the

attitude control Attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of an aerospace vehicle with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc. Controlling vehicle ...

system (S/C attitude recovery from hibernation). The secondary objective of the mission was to test a TV camera system for disaster monitoring with the goal of the introduction of an interactive Earth observation concept, where the target is not identified in advance, a search action may be involved, or a particular target region has to be followed visually from orbit.

Specifications

* Dimension: 32 x 32 x 32 cm * Launch mass: *

Solar panel A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...

: Four * Batteries: Four NiH2 *

Video camera A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos (as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film). Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of oth ...

: Three CCD ** 16 mm wide-angle camera with black-and-white chip ** 50 mm standard-angle camera with color CCD chip ** 1000 mm

telephoto lens A telephoto lens, in photography and cinematography, is a specific type of a long-focus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens group known as a ''telephoto ...

camera with black-and-white chip *

Attitude control system Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle/satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, et ...

: Three wheel / gyro pairs * Reaction wheels: Three * Laser gyro: Three * VHF / UHF TT & C system *

S band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the conventi ...

transmitter and antenna

References

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em Satellites orbiting Earth Satellites of Germany Spacecraft launched in 1999 Spacecraft launched by PSLV rockets

Mission objectives

Specifications

See also

References