US launches giant, world-sucking octopus!

[Lamplighter]

TW, here's one description I found...


H+ Magazine
By: Peter Rothman
Published: December 9, 2013

NROL-39 Nothing is Beyond Our Reach

Formally known as*ELaNa II / GEMSAT the unclassified auxiliary mission also included a variety of NASA student designed CubeSats.
<snip>
NROL-39 *carried the Government Experimental Multi-Satellite (GEMSat) payload into orbit in a specially designed Aft Bulkhead Carrier, part of the Atlas V Centaur upper stage. The GEMSat payload contains 12 CubeSats, or “nanosatellites.”

The CubeSats perform a variety of unique scientific experiments and demonstrate high-technology operational concepts. Sponsored by the NRO’s Mission Integration Directorate and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Launch Support Program, these CubeSats were developed by a number of laboratories, universities, and government entities across the United States.

The NRO-sponsored CubeSats included:
• Two developed by Aerospace Corporation, called AeroCube-5 (AC-5),*will demonstrate new technologies for pointing and tracking between two*identical CubeSats. AC-5 will also record launch environment data such*as pressure, temperature, and vibration; and will demonstrate a deorbit*device.
• One developed by the Air Force Institute of Technology, ALICE, will test*the performance of an advanced carbon nanotube array, which has great*potential for smaller, lighter, and more energy-efficient satellite propulsion.
• Four developed by the United States Army — one called SNaP,*two SMDC-One, and one TacSat-IV — will demonstrate nanosatellite*communication capabilities.
•
The NASA-sponsored CubeSats, part of NASA’s Educational Launch of*Nanosatellites (ELaNa) mission, included:
• Two developed by Montana State University Space Science and*Engineering Laboratory and funded by the National Science Foundation,*called FIREBIRD, a space weather mission that will seek to resolve*questions pertaining to microbursts in the Van Allen radiation belts.
• One developed by California Polytechnic State University, IPEX, will*validate direct broadcast, autonomous science, and product delivery*technologies supporting advancement of the Intelligent Payload Module*for the proposed Hyperspectral Infrared Imager earth science decadal*survey mission.
• One developed by University of Michigan, called MCubed-2,*will demonstrate an advanced on-board data processing system.
• One developed by Medgar Evers College, City University of New York,*CUNYSAT-1, will monitor satellite spin, battery, and solar panel*efficiencies.

But then, all that gobbledegook may just be to intimidate the terrorists.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

TW, here's one description I found...

A year ago, a new Japanese satellite called FitSat was launched by hand from the ISS. It was one of the first Cube Sats.

This new satellite technology (10 by 10 by 10 centimeter cubes) permits students to launch space experiments. Launch costs are as low as $1000 or $2000 per cube. However all costs might be $30,000. Meaning cake sales can now finance space science. Telemetry and radio hardware is often based in consumer electronics; some Audrino based.

One recent UK bird was STRaND-1 using a standard consumer smartphone (Google Nexus One). Using Android apps to perform experiments.

Atlas payload was modified to deploy a cluster of CubeSats for anyone with a reasonable experiment and willing to pay for the launch. More interesting to the DoD are tiny satellites that cannot be tracked like the current array of larger DoD satellites. Lacrosse and other military birds can be observed and tracked even with a naked eye.

These CubeSats are simply using what would otherwise be wasted energy by the launch vehicle.

[glatt]

Sounds like so much space junk. More stuff to avoid.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

Sounds like so much space junk. More stuff to avoid.

ISS really is not in space. To maintain orbit, it must repeatedly boost itself up. Therefore FitSat launched in a similar orbit was gone by the next year - sucked down to earth by drag created by the atmosphere.

CubSats launched in LEO orbits would also fall and burn up months later. NROL-39 launch vehicle somehow would release CubSats in a lower orbit. Then continue on to deploy the military bird.

CubSats should not remain as orbital garbage. But large numbers of booster rockets (even from 10 and 20 years ago) still remain in orbit.

A recent international treaty now requires satellites to destructively return to earth at end of life. This treaty was inspired by a Chinese test that destroyed their own satellite intentionally creating a large orbiting debris field.