PROITERES or Project of OIT Electric-Rocket-Engine Onboard Small Space Ship ( ja, 大阪工業大学 電気推進ロケットエンジン搭載小型スペースシッププロジェクト) is a
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 by
ISRO
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...
in 2012 for
Osaka Institute of Technology
, abbreviated as Dai kōdai (大工大), Han kōdai (阪工大), or Osaka kōdai (大阪工大) is a private university in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. OIT has 3 campuses, Omiya campus located in Asahi-ku, Osaka City, Umeda campus located in Kita ...
(OIT). This small (15 kg) boxlike system, with
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 ...
s on the hull, is the testbench for the 4.4 W
Pulsed Plasma Thruster
A pulsed plasma thruster (PPT), also known as a plasma jet engine, is a form of electric spacecraft propulsion. PPTs are generally considered the simplest form of electric spacecraft propulsion and were the first form of electric propulsion to be ...
operating on the
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. ...
platform. The total power budget of the satellite is 15 watt.
Project description and goals
PROITERES' secondary goals, as stated by the manufacturer, are:
* Experiments of two-way radio signal propagation characteristics using amateur radio (430 MHz) band.
* Communication tests of satellite communication technology using off-the-shelf consumer-grade components.
* Tracking and communicating by
amateur radio
Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...
users around the world.
* Monitoring with a high-resolution camera the
Yodogawa basin near Osaka and other parts of
Kansai
The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...
District.
It is equipped with 3-axis magnetic torquers and gyro-sensors for
attitude control (orientation), a magnetic sensor on the boom, a solar sensor, and the Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) visible spectrum camera with a five-lens system and a focal length of 85.3 mm and a f number of 3.6.
Failure
As in 2013, PROITERES does not respond to any ground commands, although still broadcasting
telemetry
Telemetry is the in situ data collection, collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic data transmission, transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Gr ...
data. According to the PROITERES development team report on 17 January 2014 at JAXA annual symposium, the PROITERES had a design error resulting in the flight computer engaged in a
boot
A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is cle ...
loop. The root cause of the boot loop was the electromagnetic incompatibility issue, resulting in a reset signal being generated if power-up ramp rate of the flight computer is high enough.
The Osaka Institute of Technology team abandoned attempts to restore communications with PROITERES satellite and proceeded with development of the PROITERES-2 design.
See also
*
Miniaturized satellite
References
Satellites orbiting Earth
Spacecraft launched in 2012
{{Japan-spacecraft-stub