ISS - International Space Station logo.
Sept. 4, 2018
From August 28 to September 3, 2018, the first series of payloads of scientific and educational satellites "SiriusSat-1" and "SiriusSat-2" was carried out, and measurements of scientific instruments were obtained and deciphered. The satellites are designed and assembled by schoolchildren in the "Big Challenges" project program at the Sirius Educational Center (Sochi), implemented with the support of the Roskosmos State Corporation.
Image above: Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev hand-deploys a SiriusSat nano-satellite into Earth orbit while tethered to the Pirs airlock on the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA TV.
"The detectors of charged particles and gamma-radiation detectors detected on the satellites SiriusSat-1 and SiriusSat-2 make it possible to investigate the rapid variations of electron fluxes at the inner boundary of the outer radiation belt and at the boundary of the South Atlantic Anomaly. The Earth will be transmitted as monitoring data - particle counting rates 1 time per second, and detailed data on all interactions in the detector with a time resolution of 20 microseconds, which will allow us to study the time and spectral characteristics of micro-precipitation of electrons from the Earth's radiation belts. Another problem is the study of the dynamics of particle and gamma-ray fluxes in very low orbits, depending on the geomagnetic conditions. Additional possibilities are given by the analysis of the sequential passage by two closely-flying satellites of the same region of trapped or precipitated particles, "says the senior research fellow of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Moscow State University, Ph.D. Mr. Vitaliy Vladimirovich Bogomolov, the head of the work with the payload of the satellites "SiriusSat".
The useful load of the SiriusSat satellites is the detector of charged particles and gamma radiation developed in the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Moscow State University and jointly created by the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Moscow State University and the satellite company "Satellite" in the energy release range 0.3-3 MeV. The detector is a scintillation spectrometer made on the basis of an assembly of a plastic scintillator and crystals CsI (Na) and CsI (Tl), which has a sensitive area of ~ 4 cm2. Daily information of each of the satellites is about 1 MB.
The first monitoring data received from the SiriusSat-1 satellite on August 29, 2018 is shown in the figure. You can observe a significant increase in the readings of the device at the time of approaching South America. This growth is related to the particles of the inner radiation belt present in the low orbit around the South Atlantic Anomaly.
First scientific data. Image Credit: Roscosmos
The "SiriusSat" satellites were delivered to the ISS by the Progress-MS-09 cargo ship on July 10, 2018, and on August 15, 2018 Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev sent the aircrafts on their own.
The satellite was collected by schoolchildren at the Sirius Educational Center in Sochi and was demonstrated to President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin during his visit in July 2017 to the Sirius Educational Center. Then the guys who designed the spacecraft asked Vladimir Vladimirovich a question about the possibility of a subsequent launch.
Satellites orbit. Image Credit: Roscosmos
State Corporation Roscosmos and PJSC RSC Energia provided assistance in organizing the dispatch of SiriusSat-1,2 into orbit as part of a program of cooperation with the Education Center. The Foundation for the Promotion of Innovation provided financial support for the creation of nanosatellites.
Before sending to the ISS, the apparatus passed all the necessary verification procedures on the basis of the laboratories of the Sirius Educational Center and RSC Energia. The satellites were collected by schoolchildren in cooperation with SPUTNIKS specialists from Skolkovo on the basis of the nano-satellite platform "OrbiCraft-Pro" developed by the company. The platform has a standardized international standard CubeSat 1U. The SiriusSat spacecraft have been further developed to meet the launch requirements: they have a handle for launching an astronaut, flexible antennas, a system for the manual activation of a spacecraft, and also equipped with specially designed protective quick-release covers and soft shipping containers. The weight of each unit with a handle is 1.45 kg. The dimensions of the satellite without taking into account the open antennas are 130 × 131 × 236 mm. The active life of satellites is at least 3 months, the ballistic period is about 1.5 years.
Currently, the satellites are at the stage of flight tests, an analysis of the performance of the systems of vehicles in different modes is carried out, the rotation of the satellites specified at the start is gradually stabilized, and a limited inclusion of the payload is made. Systems of devices work normally.
How to launch satellites by hand
Video above: Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos manually launched four small technology satellites, two Tanusha (Tanyusha-/Танюша) and two SiriusSat nanosatellites, during the extravehicular activity on 15 August 2018. Video Credits: NASA TV/SciNews.
It is expected that the youth will continue to participate in the work with the SiriusSat spacecraft and in the analysis of scientific data, both for senior students trained in the design changes of Sirius, and for students of the Moscow State University. MV Lomonosov and other universities specializing in space research. Data from particle detectors and board telemetry can also be obtained and analyzed by students of space circles and radio amateurs using ground stations operating in the radio amateur band. Satellites operate at radio amateur frequencies and have the following callsign: "SiriusSat-1" - call sign RS13S (frequency 435.570 MHz), "SiriusSat-2" - callsign RS14S (frequency 435.670 MHz).
On the July program of this year, the work on the creation of other devices of the series was continued at the Sirius Educational Center. Students not only designed the satellite, but also planned its scientific mission and calculated, at what moments the "coussat" will transmit data to Earth. The grouping of several similar scientific and educational satellites launched into space and a network of ground stations will allow scientists and specialists to observe the state of "space weather" in low orbit simultaneously in different parts of near-Earth space in real time.
Roscosmos Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/25470/
Related article:
Cosmonauts Wrap Up Russian Spacewalk for Science Work
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/08/cosmonauts-wrap-up-russian-spacewalk.html
Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: Roscosmos/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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