Tag: CubeSat

Update on NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System

Four views from cameras onboard the spacecraft show the reflective sail quadrants supported by composite booms.
Four cameras aboard the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft show the four reflective sail quadrants supported by composite booms. The booms are mounted at right angles and the spacecraft’s solar panel is rectangular, but lines appear distorted because of the wide-angle camera field of view. Mission operators are currently analyzing a slight bend in the boom pictured in the left corner of the bottom left image.

Mission operators for NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System continue to analyze data from the spacecraft and characterize the performance of its composite booms. Following successful deployment of the booms and solar sail, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System still slowly tumbles in orbit because the spacecraft’s attitude control system is not yet reengaged.

Before rolling out the booms in the deployment phase, the team deactivated the attitude control system to accommodate the spacecraft’s changing dynamics as the sail unfurled. Attitude control applies forces to a spacecraft to help it maintain a particular orientation relative to another location in space, such as aiming an antenna at a ground station for communications or optimally placing solar panels to face the Sun to charge a spacecraft’s batteries.

While the solar sail has fully extended to its square shape roughly half the size of a tennis court, the mission team is assessing what appears to be a slight bend in one of the four booms. This likely occurred as the booms and sail were pulled taut to the spacecraft during deployment. Analysis indicates that the bend may have partially straightened over the weeks since boom deployment, while the spacecraft was slowly tumbling.

The primary objective of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System demonstration is to test deployment of the booms in space to inform future applications of the composite boom technology for large-scale solar sails and other structures. Data collected from this flight test has already proven highly valuable, and the demonstration will continue producing critical information to enable future solar sail missions.

The mission team predicts the slight bend in one of the four booms will not inhibit the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System’s ability to execute its sailing maneuvers later in the technology demonstration.

Now, mission operators are working to reposition the spacecraft, keeping the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System in low power mode until its solar panels are more favorably oriented toward direct sunlight. The team is conserving the spacecraft’s energy for priority operations – such as two-way communications with mission control – until its attitude control system is reactivated.

When the attitude control system is reengaged, the spacecraft will be able to point its high-bandwidth radio antenna more precisely toward the ground station as it passes overhead during its brief windows of communication with the mission team. At this stage, the team will be able to gather even more data, calibrate the precise shape of the sail, and prepare to begin its sailing maneuvers.

For ongoing mission updates, follow us on social media:

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NASA’s Ames Research Center manages the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System project and designed and built the onboard camera diagnostic system. NASA’s Langley Research Center designed and built the deployable composite booms and solar sail system. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program office based at NASA Ames and led by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, funds and manages the mission. NASA STMD’s Game Changing Development program developed the deployable composite boom technology. Rocket Lab USA, Inc of Long Beach, California provided launch services, and NanoAvionics provided the spacecraft bus.

NASA Evaluates Deployed Advanced Composite Solar Sail System

Since deploying its sail last week, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft continues sending  images and data, helping the team better understand how the boom technology demonstration performed. The primary objective of the demonstration is to conduct the deployment operation and use it to inform the use of large-scale sails for future missions. The mission team is continuing to  analyze the incoming data and prepare for the next steps in the technology demonstration over the next couple of weeks.

Currently orbiting Earth, the spacecraft can be seen with its reflective sails deployed from the ground. As part of the planned deployment sequence, the spacecraft began flying without attitude control just before the deployment of the booms. As a result, it is slowly tumbling as expected. Once the mission team finishes characterizing the booms and sail, they will re-engage the spacecraft’s attitude control system, which will stabilize the spacecraft and stop the tumbling. Engineers will then analyze flight dynamics before initiating maneuvers that will raise and lower the spacecraft’s orbit.

Those interested in spotting the sail can view the spacecraft using a new feature in the NASA mobile app. Its visibility may be intermittent in the night sky, and it could appear at variable levels of brightness while tumbling. NASA invites the public to share their own photos of the spacecraft online with the hashtag, #SpotTheSail.

Image caption: The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System has four black-and-white wide-angle cameras, centrally located aboard the spacecraft. Near the bottom of the photo, the view from one camera shows the reflective sail quadrants supported by composite booms. At the top of the photo is the back surface of one of the spacecraft’s solar panels. The five sets of markings on the booms close to the spacecraft are reference markers to indicate full extension of the sail. The booms are mounted at right angles, and the solar panel is rectangular, but appear distorted because of the wide-angle camera field of view. Credit: NASA

NASA Composite Booms Deploy, Mission Sets Sail in Space

NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System is now fully deployed in space after a successful test of its sail-hoisting boom system. Mission operators confirmed success at 1:33 p.m. EDT (10:33 a.m. PDT) on Thursday, Aug. 29, after receiving data from the spacecraft. Centrally located aboard the spacecraft are four cameras which captured a panoramic view of the reflective sail and supporting composite booms. High-resolution imagery from these cameras will be available on Wednesday, Sept. 4. 

During the next few weeks, the team will test the maneuvering capabilities of the sail in space. Raising and lowering the orbit of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft will provide valuable information that may help guide future concepts of operations and designs for solar sail-equipped science and exploration missions. 

The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft orbits Earth at approximately twice the altitude of the International Space Station. From above, the sail will appear as a square, with an area of approximately 860 square feet (80 square meters) – about half the size of a tennis court. Now, with the sail fully extended, the Solar Sail System may be visible to some keen skywatchers on Earth who look up at the right time. Stay tuned to NASA.gov and @NASAAmes on social media for updates on how to catch the spacecraft passing over your area.

For ongoing mission updates, follow us on social media:  

X: @NASAAmes, @NASA 
Facebook: NASA Ames, NASA 
Instagram: @NASAAmes, @NASA 

NASA Ames manages the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System project and designed and built the onboard camera diagnostic system. NASA Langley designed and built the deployable composite booms and solar sail system. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program office based at NASA Ames and led by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, funds and manages the mission. NASA STMD’s Game Changing Development program developed the deployable composite boom technology. Rocket Lab USA, Inc of Long Beach, California provided launch services, and NanoAvionics provided the spacecraft bus.  

NASA Updates Deployment Efforts for Solar Sail Demonstration

NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System has begun deployment operations. Upon an initial attempt to unfurl, the solar sail paused when an onboard power monitor detected higher than expected motor currents. Communications, power, and attitude control for the spacecraft all remain normal while mission managers work to understand and resolve the cause of the interruption by analyzing data from the spacecraft.

One of the primary objectives of this technology demonstration is to test the expanding boom system, which has never been deployed for a solar sail on a spacecraft of this size. The spacecraft’s booms, which are similar in function to a sailboat’s booms, are made of a new material that is stiffer and lighter than previous designs. This technology has the potential to lower the cost of deep space missions and increase access to space.

Mission operators have been able to download data from the spacecraft during brief, planned communications windows when it passes in range of mission control at Santa Clara University in California. The team is conducting analysis and assessing all spacecraft systems before resuming deployment operations.

NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program maintains a philosophy of risk tolerance in its pursuit to rapidly mature space technologies that meet the needs of NASA and the nation.

For ongoing mission updates, follow us on social media:

X: @NASAAmes, @NASA
Facebook: NASA Ames, NASA
Instagram: @NASAAmes, @NASA

NASA Ames manages the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System project and designed and built the onboard camera diagnostic system. NASA Langley designed and built the deployable composite booms and solar sail system. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program office based at NASA Ames and led by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, funds and manages the mission. NASA STMD’s Game Changing Development program developed the deployable composite boom technology. Rocket Lab USA, Inc of Long Beach, California provided launch services, and NanoAvionics provided the spacecraft bus.  

 

NASA’s Solar Sail System Readies Sail Deployment

Commissioning is nearly complete for NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, and mission operators are charting a course for their next milestone – hoisting the sails using new composite booms.

The sail will unfurl from the spacecraft’s 12-unit (12U) CubeSat body using composite booms made from new materials that are stiffer and lighter than previous designs. Once successful boom and sail deployment are achieved, the team hopes to prove the sail’s propulsion capabilities and maneuverability by raising and lowering the satellite’s orbit. Solar sails use the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, as photons bouncing off a reflective sail push a spacecraft. Like a sailboat turning to capture the wind, the spacecraft can adjust its orbit by angling the sail.

After launching in April aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from New Zealand, the mission completed a series of tests and preparations, including testing two-way communications and deploying solar panels – a battery-charging mechanism, not to be confused with the not-yet deployed solar sail.

The project team expects to deploy the sail in the next few weeks. Given its position in orbit, about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) above Earth, and the reflectivity of the large sail, about 860 square feet (80 square meters), mission managers say the Solar Sail System should be easily visible at times in the night sky once the sail is fully deployed.

For ongoing mission updates, follow us on social media:

X: @NASAAmes, @NASA
Facebook: NASA Ames, NASA
Instagram: @NASAAmes, @NASA

NASA Ames manages the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System project and designed and built the onboard camera diagnostic system. NASA Langley designed and built the deployable composite booms and solar sail system. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program office based at NASA Ames and led by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), funds and manages the mission. NASA STMD’s Game Changing Development program developed the deployable composite boom technology. Rocket Lab USA, Inc of Long Beach, California provided launch services. AST&Defense LLC of College Park, Maryland, designed and built the spacecraft bus.

 

 

Liftoff for PREFIRE and Ice!

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off from the pad amid an overcast sky.
Rocket Lab’s “PREFIRE and Ice” launches carrying NASA’s second PREFIRE CubeSat from New Zealand on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Credit: Rocket Lab Broadcast

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 1 at Māhia, New Zealand at 3:15 p.m. NZST Wednesday, June 5 (11:15 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 4), on the second of two launches of NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission. 

The PREFIRE mission will help close a gap in our understanding of how much of Earth’s heat is lost to space from the Arctic and Antarctica. Each PREFIRE satellite is equipped with an instrument called a thermal infrared spectrometer. The instrument contains specially shaped mirrors and detectors for splitting and measuring infrared light. Analysis of PREFIRE measurements will inform climate and ice models, providing better projections of how a warming world will affect sea ice loss, ice sheet melt, and sea level rise. 

The mission consists of two 6U CubeSats with a baseline mission length of 10 months and is jointly developed by NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and provided the instruments. Blue Canyon Technologies built the CubeSats, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will process the data collected by the instruments. The science team includes members from JPL and the Universities of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Colorado. 

NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, selected Rocket Lab to provide the launch service as part of the agency’s VADR (Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) launch services contract. 

This concludes our coverage of the “PREFIRE and Ice” launch. The team is now working to establish communications with this PREFIRE CubeSat and will provide confirmation when signal is acquired. For updates, follow NASA’s small satellite missions blog or visit: https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/projects/prefire/. 

Rocket Lab’s Electron Rocket ‘Go’ for Launch!

The mission team has called out “go for launch” for Rocket Lab’s PREFIRE and Ice launch, with the second of two launches of NASA’s PREFIRE mission now just minutes away! 

The CubeSat – about the size of a bread loaf – is set to launch aboard the company’s Electron rocket, from Launch Complex 1 at Māhia, New Zealand. 

The Electron is a vertically launched, two-stage rocket around 60 feet (18 meters) tall, with an exterior made of a carbon fiber composite, that can carry payloads weighing up to about 700 pounds (320 kilograms). Each Electron rocket uses nine Rutherford sea-level engines on its first stage, a single Rutherford vacuum engine on its second stage, and uses liquid oxygen and kerosene as propellants. The Rutherford engine is the world’s first 3D-printed, electric-pump-fed rocket engine. 

The kick stage is a third stage of the Electron rocket used to circularize and raise orbits to deploy payloads to unique and precise orbital destinations, powered by Rocket Lab’s Curie engine.

Members of today’s launch team are located within Rocket Lab’s private control facilities at Launch Complex 1 on the North Island of New Zealand. From the launch site it is possible to reach orbital inclinations from sun-synchronous through to 30 degrees, enabling versatility for missions to low Earth orbit. NASA’s Launch Services Program team and spacecraft customer team will be on console at Rocket Lab Headquarters in Long Beach, California. 

NASA’s Second PREFIRE Launch Coverage Now Underway

Live coverage of the second and final launch of NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission is underway. Rocket Lab is targeting Wednesday, June 5 at 3:15 p.m. NZST (11:15 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 4) for launch of “PREFIRE and Ice,” which will send the agency’s CubeSat to low Earth orbit to measure the amount of heat Earth radiates into space from two of the coldest, most remote regions on the planet. 

Watch Rocket Lab’s launch broadcast on the company’s website. 

NASA’s Second PREFIRE Mission: Small Satellites, Big Science

NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission will fly a pair of shoebox-size cube satellites, or CubeSats, that will measure the amount of heat Earth radiates into space from two of the coldest, most remote regions on the planet – Earth’s polar regions. 

At the heart of the PREFIRE mission is Earth’s energy budget – the balance between incoming heat energy from the Sun and the outgoing heat given off by the planet. The difference between the two is what determines the planet’s temperature and climate. A lot of the heat radiated from the Arctic and Antarctica is emitted as far-infrared radiation, but there is currently no detailed measurement of this type of energy. 

The water vapor content of the atmosphere, along with the presence, structure, and composition of clouds, influences the amount of far-infrared radiation that escapes into space from Earth’s poles. Data collected from PREFIRE will give researchers information on where and when far-infrared energy radiates from the Arctic and Antarctic environments into space. 

The PREFIRE mission features miniaturized thermal infrared spectrometers on both CubeSat satellites. Once deployed, the CubeSats will settle into a polar orbit to measure far-infrared emissions and how they change throughout the day and over seasons. The observations will allow scientists to assess how changes in thermal infrared emissions at the top of Earth’s atmosphere are related to changes in cloud cover and surface conditions below, such as the amount of sea ice and meltwater on the surface of the ice. 

NASA’s PREFIRE mission will fill a gap in our understanding of how much of Earth’s heat is lost to space from the polar regions. By capturing measurements over the poles that can only be gathered from space, PREFIRE will enable researchers to systematically study the planet’s heat emissions in the far-infrared – with 10 times finer wavelength resolution than any previous sensor.  

To learn more about the PREFIRE mission, visit:  

https://www.nasa.gov/prefire/ 

NASA’s Second PREFIRE Mission: Weather 80% Favorable for Launch

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket called "PREFIRE and Ice” is vertical on the pad in Mahia, New Zealand ahead of launching the second of two PREFIRE CubeSats for NASA on May 29, 2024.
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket called “PREFIRE and Ice” is vertical on the pad in Mahia, New Zealand ahead of launching the second of two PREFIRE CubeSats for NASA on May 29, 2024. Photo Credit: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab successfully conducted a Delta Launch Readiness Review yesterday for the second launch of NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission and is ready to proceed to launch. 

The launch, named “PREFIRE and Ice” by Rocket Lab, is targeted for Wednesday, June 5, at 3:15 p.m. NZST (11:15 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, June 4). 

Weather officials with Rocket Lab predict an 80% chance of favorable weather for launch of PREFIRE. 

Continue checking NASA’s small satellites missions blog for updates or watch live coverage on Rocket Lab’s livestream. You can stay connected with the mission on social media. 

X: @NASA_LSP, @NASAEarth, @NASAKennedy, @NASA, @RocketLab, @NASAJPL
Facebook: NASA, NASA LSP, @NASAJPL, RocketLabUSA
Instagram: @NASA, @NASAEarth, @NASAJPL, @RocketLabUSA