|
| |
 Gonets D1-4,
D1-5, D1-6, 1997-006A, 1997-006B, 1997-006C - A multiple launch of an 11K68 Tsyklon-3 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on the 14th Febrary
1997 put six spacecraft into a 1409x1409km orbit inclined at 82.6 degrees, three of which
are part of the Gonets LEO data communications network. They
will monitor disasters like oil spills and illicit transport of radioactive cargo, and
provide prompt alerts. The spacecraft use the STRELA-3 bus, weigh 231kg each and are
designed for a five year lifetime by NPO Applied Mechanics (NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of
Krasnoyarsk, Russia) for SMOLSAT (Russia). The remaining three Cosmos satellites are
similar, but will provide military services of data transfer and photo reconnoissance.
- Cosmos 2337,
Cosmos 2338, Cosmos 2339, 1997-006D, 1997-006E, 1997-006F
- On the same launch as Gonets D1-4 to D1-6, Cosmos 2337 to 2339 are Russian military
spacecraft for Russian Federation Ministry of Defense (MO RF) also using the STRELA-3 bus,
but offer military data messaging and photo reconnoissance.
-
- MINISAT-01,
1997-018A
- Minisat, the Spanish space agency,
Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA) {195 209}kg minisatellite was launched on
a Pegasus-XL from the Canary Islands (Spain) on the 21st April 1997, into a 570x577km
orbit inclined at 151 degrees. The launch is reported to have cost US$10.4m (FY?) The
satellite measures 1145x1005x1170mm, with four 45W, 1.5m deployable panels. The spacecraft
power system is 28V unregulated with 60W average power requirement. Uplink and downlink is
via S-band, 5W at 1Mbps, and data storage is 32Mbyte. It is 1-axis stabilised with an
accuracy of 3 degrees. The spacecraft bus and payload roughly share 50% each of the
available mass. The satellite is built by the spanish CASA company, and will aid in the
study of background radiation in the extreme ultraviolet spectrum, low energy gamma
radiation, and the behaviour of liquid bridges in microgravity. The platform is spin
stabilised. It is the first in a series of planned satellites based on this bus, and is
designed to operate for 2 years. Minisat-1 would fly a remote sensing payload, and
Minisat-2 would carry payloads for geostationary communications. {Reports disagree}
More...
[LEAFF, INTA][minisat at pollux, Spain][Artricle at LEAFF]
-
- OrbView-2, (aka
Seastar), 1997-037A, (24883)
- A 395kg (wet mass, dry mass 309kg?) Ocean observing satellite built by OSC for its
subsiduary company Orbital Imaging Corp. (ORBIMAGE), for the Mission To Planet Earth
initiative, was launched on a Pegasus-XL from VAFB on the 1st August 1997, into an initial
orbit of 297x319km inclined at 90.7deg. After initial checkout, the satellite was boosted
to a 705km orbit with a noon equator crossing. It is commanded at S-band using 19,200bps
data rate, and carries two downlinks; One at L-band at 56-665.4kbps to provide
real-time science and housekeeping data, and one at S-band at 2Mbps for stored data dumps.
The satellite carries the Sea-viewing Wide Field of View Sensor (SeaWIFS) with a 1.13km
pixel resolution and 3000km swath width, in order to build up a global map of ocean
vegetation every 48 hours, which has a prime application in the fishing industry. The
sensor is multi-spectral with 9 bands. The program is reported to have cost NASA US$43.5m
in March 1991, which includes five years of operational data delivery. A picture shows that the satellite is based on the ORBITAL
PegaStar bus. The satellite is reported to be commissioned, and has performed its first
global survey.
References
[1] "SeaStarTM (OrbView-2) Flight Operations and data
delivery, P.R.Leygraaf", AIAA/USU 1997 Conference on Small Satellites.
More...
[SeaStar
at OSC][SeaStar
at NASA]
Pictures courtesy of OSC
-
- Lewis,
1997-044A, (24909)
- Lewis was developed under the NASA Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI) for the
Mission To Planet Earth initiative, and was to demonstrate more than 25 new technologies
and components in space. Lewis was successfully launched from VAFB into a 298x320km orbit
inclined at 97.6 deg, on an LMLV-1 (later renamed Athena) launcher on the 23rd of August
1997, and intended to boost into a 523km sun-synchronous orbit. The spacecraft started
spinning soon afterwards for unknown reasons leading to battery discharge, and control was
never recovered. The spacecraft decayed on the 29th September. The spacecraft weighs 404kg
(385.6kg dry?), and the hexagonal cylinder measures 1.5m x 2m. It has two wing deployed
solar panels delivering 600W. It is 3-axis stabilised using zero momentum bias wheels, and
carries 8 1lb hydrazine thrusters. The instruments carried include a Hyper Spectral Imager
(0.4-2.5 micron, 384 bands), LEISA a linear spectral array (1-2.5 micron), and UCB an
ultra-violet and cosmic background instrument (35-85nm). Amongst the technology
demonstrations are GPS attitude determination (4 antennas), a wide angle star tracker, a
magnetically suspended reaction wheel, and structure with integrated thermal control. It
will also demonstrate on-board data compression. The spacecraft was constructed by TRW
under a $64.8m contract, with an additional US$6.2m for 1 year storage due to a delayed
launch..
- Ref. [1] TRW data sheet . More...
[SSTI at TRW][Artist impression][Failure report (PDF)]
Picture courtesy of TRW
-
- FORTE (P94-1),
1997-047A (24920)
- FORTE (Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events) was launched from VAFB on a
Pegasus-XL on the 29th August 1997, into a 800 x 807 km x 70.0 degree orbit. FORTE is a
small satellite program by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National
Laboratories for the Department of Energy in the US. It carries sophisticated electronic
equipment for detecting, analyzing and recording bursts of radio energy (monitoring of
violations of nuclear test ban treaties) arising from near Earth's surface. The satellite
weighs 227kg/215kg, and uses a completely graphite epoxy composite structure weighing only
41kg. It carries a 10m deployable antenna. The attitude mode employed is momentum bias
with gravity gradient stabilisation. It carries 3x2 axis magnetometers and an Earth
horizon sensor, momentum wheel and 3-axis magnetic torque rods (All Ithaco)
[1] AIAA/USU 1997, SSC97-II-5, "FORTE Hardware in the
loop simulation", K.K.Ruud et all, LANL
More...
[picture][FORTE
at LANL]
Pictures courtesy of LANL
- FAISAT-2v/VitaSat-1r,
1997-052B
- FAISAT-2v, based on FAISAT-1 is a 114.5kg minisatellite bus by Final Analysis Inc. It was launched on a
KOSMOS-3m launcher alongside Cosmos 2346 on the 23rd September 1997 from Plesetsk
Cosmodrome, after being left behind on an earlier KOSMOS in April '97 due to a
bureaucratic glitch. It was launched into a 956x1012km orbit inclined at 82.9 degrees. AKO
Polyot will launch the satellites as a partner in a joint venture for FAI's communications
constellation. FAISAT also carries transponders for VITA, a
non-profit organization committed to helping people in developing countries improve the
collection and transfer of information. This second satellite will carry out communication
studies in order to develop suitable algoritms for sharing with other networks and
interfering systems, over countries including the USA, Mongolia, Germany and Poland. The
remaining 26 satellites will be launched between 1997 and 2000 to form a global network.
FAISAT-2v has GMSK uplinks in the 455-456 and 459-460MHz band, and 400.62MHz and 400.55MHz
downlink. The downlink power is variable between 5-15W, and employs two rates of 4800 and
9600bps GMSK. The system ground based small terminals operate with 1-10W uplink power. It
is reported that the satellite is working well after an initial glitch where the
spacecraft went silent shortly after deployment. A power problem was reported during its
first eclipse season, in supplying power during eclipse. It is believed this can be
corrected by new software. More...
[Final Analysis Inc.]
Picture courtesy of FAI
- STEP-4 (P95-1),
1997-063A.
- The Space Test Experiment Platform Mission-4 was launched on the 22nd October 1997 atop
a Pegasus-XL launcher from Wallops, and placed into a 430x500, 45 deg orbit. It was
expected to manouever to a 600km orbit, but operators did not manage to set up reliable
communications with the spacecraft to unfurl its solar arrays, and the spacecraft was
lost. The (390 or 403?)kg US Air Force satellite procured from TRW, based on the earlier
STEP missions. The spacecraft measures1.52mx0.96m, and generates 183W of power from its
deployed panels. It is three axis stabilised, but is also reported to be operating with a
1, 5 or 8 RPM spin rate. It has a mission lifetime of 1 years, with a 2 year goal. It
carries all-service payloads from the Naval Research Laboratory and the Air Force Research
Laboratory. Its mission was to carry three Department Of Defence payloads, Digital Ion
Drift Meter (DIDM) to study ion drift, Electromagnetic Propagation Experiment (EMPE) to
aid study radio propagation through the ionosphere, and Orbiting Ozone and Aerosol
Measurement (OOAM) to study ozone and water vapour in the middle atmosphere. The
spacecraft mission is reported to have cost US$67m including launch.
- [Step missions][STEP-4 at TRW][STEP-4 at SMC/TE]
-
- TEAMSAT, 1997
- TEAMSAT is a 310kg minisatelite, launched on Ariane mission 502 on the 30th Oct 1997
into a near GTO orbit. It is octagonally shaped, and designed and constructed in 8 months
primarily by students working under ESA's young Graduate Engineers Program. ESTEC has
provided extensive support for the mission. Donated hardware from other satellite
programs, including ECS and Cluster has been included. Five payloads are carried. VTS,
Visual Telemetry System includes cameras to record the launch and deployment. FPE, Flux
Probe Experiment comprises sensors to measure the effects of atomic oxygen on various
surfaces. ODD, the Orbital Debris Device will be employed as a ground based radar
calibration system and comprises black and white painted targets. Autonomous Vision System
(AVS) is a system for tracking the sub-satellite and Yes sub-satellite. A tethered
sub-satellite, YES, is also carried and was to be deployed by spings to aid in the study
of tether behaviour, but this was deemed too great a danger in GTO orbit. Yes will include
a GPS receiver (the first to be flown above the GPS constellation), radiation experiments,
and accelerometers. Ground stations used for the operations are located in Kourou and
Perth Australia.
[1] The Teamsat experience,
M. Bandecchi & W.J. Ockels, ESA Bulletin 95, Aug 98
- More...
[TeamSAT at Go-Ariane][TeamSAT at ESTEC][Teamsat]
-
- SCD-2a, 1997
- SCD-2a, INPE's 115kg follow on mission on SCD-1 (Satellite de Collectos de datos) ended
in disaster as the inaugural flight of Brazil's VLS failed on the 2nd November 1997. It
was tobe placed into a 700km orbit. It is designed by the Space Research Institute in Sao
Jose dos Canpos, and was to provide data collection over the Brazilian territory. It was
the refurbished engineering model of the SCD-2 spacecraft which is to be launched on a
Pegasus in 1998. The spacecraft is reported to have cost US$5m (1997).
-
- Equator-S, 1997-075B,
(25068)
- A 260kg (230kg dry?) scientific satellite to be originally launched on an Ariane-5 but
is was launched on Ariane-4 mission V103 into GTO on the 2nd December 1997. It was
developed by the German Max Plank Institute. The satellite is to measure the inner
magnetosphere under the ISTP/IASTP programme from an orbit of 500x 63700km, 4deg, and is
reported to carry a GPS receiver to determine its use above the GPS constellation. The
satellite measures 1.65mx1.26m, and 16 panels deliver 70W power. The satellite is spin
stabilised, perpendicular to the Sun-Earth vector. The 1W S-band downlink supports
32-262kbps telemetry. The two on-board processors are NCS-800 based with 1.5Gbit of solid
state data storage. The seven instruments include a flux-gate magnetometer (DC-64Hz
bandwidth), EDI, an electric field monitor in the DC-25 Hz band, 3DA, a plasma
electron/ion distribution function monitor, EPI, an electron/ion monitor in the 20-400 keV
range with 16 channels, ESIC, to monitor the distribution function of energetic (15 eV-40
keV) H+, He+, He++, and O+ particles, PCD, a 50 microampere Indium ion emitter to
control/reduce the spacecraft potential, and SFD, to monitor >0.26 MeV electrons and
>6.3 MeV protons. The spacecraft is reported to have established that GPS can be
received above the GPS constellation. The primary and back-up on-board processor failed
after two weeks and 6 months of operation, believed to be due to latchup. Subsequently the
spacecraft was de-activated. More [Equator-S at Max Planck
Institute][Equator-S at DLR][Equator-S at Go-Ariane]
Picture (right) courtesy of Armin Brown - Max Plank Institute.
EarlyBird-1,
1997-085A  - The first of its two planned Earth Observation satellites by Earthwatch Inc. The 317kg
(284kg dry?) satellite was launched on a launcher from Svobodny on a Start-1 launcher on
the 24th December 1997, into a 528x461km Sun-Synchronous orbit (10:30). The satellite
carries an Eastman Kodak 3-meter panchromatic camera (3kmx3km) and 15-meter
(15kmx15km)multispectral camera. The satellite was built by OSC , and is three axis
stabilised and nadir ponting. Initial reports state that operators have trouble
establishing contact following four days of nominal commissioning of the satellite.
[EarlyBird at EarthWatch Inc](OSC photo)(photo 2)(photo 3)
Picture courtesy of EarthWatch Inc.
|
