Aeolus laser shines light on wind

ESA - Aeolus Mission logo.

5 September 2018

Following the launch of Aeolus on 22 August, this extraordinary satellite’s instrument has been turned on and is now emitting pulses of ultraviolet light from its laser, which is fundamental to measuring Earth’s wind. And, this remarkable mission has also already returned a tantalising glimpse of the data it will provide.

Lofted into space on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana just two weeks ago, ESA’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite has been designed to measure winds around the globe.

First light from Aeolus

Aeolus will play a key role in our quest to better understand the workings of the atmosphere and, importantly, this novel mission will also improve weather forecasting.

Aeolus carries a revolutionary instrument, which comprises a powerful laser, a large telescope and a very sensitive receiver. It works by emitting short, powerful pulses – 50 pulses per second – of ultraviolet light from a laser down into the atmosphere.

The instrument then measures the backscattered signals from air molecules, dust particles and water droplets to provide vertical profiles that show the speed of the world’s winds in the lowermost 30 km of the atmosphere.

The mission is now being commissioned for service – a phase that lasts about three months. One of the first things on the ‘to do’ list was arguably the one of the most important: turn on the instrument and check that the laser works.

ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, explained, “Aeolus is a world premiere. After the launch two weeks ago the whole community has been anxiously awaiting the switch-on of the ultra-violet laser, which is a real technological marvel.

Profiling the world's winds

“This has been successful. We have pioneered new technology for one of the largest data gaps in meteorology – global wind profiles in cloud-free atmosphere.  I am grateful to all who have made this success possible.”

ESA’s Aeolus project manager, Anders Elfving, added, “Aeolus has been one of the most challenging missions on ESA’s books. And, unsurprisingly, we have had to overcome a number of technical challenges.

“After many years in development, we had absolute confidence that it would work in space, but it was still somewhat nerve-racking when we turned on the instrument a few days ago.

“But the years of work certainly appear to have paid off. After turning it on, we started slowly and steadily increasing the power.

“It is now emitting at high power – and we couldn’t be happier.”

Richard Wimmer from Airbus Defence and Space noted, “It is a very exciting time to have Aeolus safely in orbit and doing what we and our industrial teams spent years building it to do.”

Aeolus reveals all

Aeolus has also already made some astonishing first measurements.

ESA’s Fabio Buscaglione, who heads the data processing for Aeolus, said, “We have already been able to process the first wind data, which are quite remarkable.”

Oliver Reitebuch from the German Aerospace Center, DLR, remarked, “We are extremely pleased to see that the first light from the atmosphere looks exactly as we had hoped – confirming that the mission is already well and truly on track.”

Michael Rennie from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, added, “At this very early stage in the mission – just three days after the instrument was switched on – Aeolus has already exceeded expectations by delivering data that show clear features of the wind.

ESA’s wind mission lifts off

“The instrument is not yet even fully calibrated, so these results are just incredible.”

With Aeolus instrument healthy and performing well, engineers will continue ticking off other items on the ‘commissioning to do list’ so that in a few months Aeolus will be ready to deliver essential information to improve our knowledge of atmospheric dynamics, further climate research and improve weather forecasts.

Related links:

ESA Aeolus: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Aeolus

Airbus Defence and Space: http://www.airbus.com/

ECMWF: https://www.ecmwf.int/

DLR: http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10002/

Centre Spatial de Liège: http://www.csl.uliege.be/jcms/c_5053/en/home

Leonardo: http://www.leonardocompany.com/en

Europe's Spaceport: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/Europe_s_Spaceport

Images, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/S. Corvaja/ECMWF/ATG medialab.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Astronauts Get Ready for Japan’s Seventh Cargo Mission and Two U.S. Spacewalks

ISS - Expedition 56 Mission patch.

September 4, 2018

A rocket carrying Japan’s seventh H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-7) is poised to launch next Monday on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. The Expedition 56 crew members trained for the HTV-7’s arrival, conducted eye checks and prepared for a pair of spacewalks.

On Sept. 10, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is launching a cargo craft, exactly nine years to the day JAXA launched its first HTV mission, to the space station. The HTV-7 will take a four-day trip before reaching a point just 10 meters away from the orbital lab. Commander Drew Feustel will then grapple it with the Canadarm2 robotic arm as Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor backs him up inside the cupola.

Image above: Japan’s last cargo craft, the HTV-6, is pictured in the grips of the Canadarm2 moments before its release ending its stay Jan. 27, 2017, at the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA.

The duo practiced for next week’s approach and rendezvous of the HTV-7 then turned their attention to eye exams and ultrasound eye scans. Their cosmonaut crewmates, Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev, also participated in the eye exams using Optical Coherence Tomography for detailed views of their retinas.

After the HTV-7 arrives, robotics controllers will begin the work of removing six new lithium-ion batteries from the HTV-7’s External Pallet and storing them on the Port 4 (P4) truss structure. They will replace a dozen older nickel-hydrogen batteries on the station’s P4. Nine of the older batteries will be stowed inside the HTV-7 for disposal and the other three stored on the P4.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

Three astronauts will then install and hookup the battery adapter plates over a pair of spacewalks planned for Sept. 20 and 26. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst will participate in both spacewalks, with Feustel on the first and NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold on the second.

NASA TV is broadcasting live the HTV-7 launch and rendezvous activities as well as both spacewalks.

Related links:

Expedition 56: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition56/index.html

H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-7) launch: https://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA): http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/iss_human/index.html

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Jupiter’s Swirling Cloudscape

NASA - JUNO Mission logo.

Sep. 04, 2018

Intricate swirls in Jupiter’s volatile northern hemisphere are captured in this color-enhanced image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Bursts of bright-white “pop-up” clouds appear scattered throughout the scene, with some visibly casting shadows on the neighboring cloud layers beneath them. Juno scientists are using shadows to determine the distances between cloud layers in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which provide clues to their composition and origin.

This image was taken at 10:27 p.m. PDT on May 23, 2018 (1:27 a.m. EDT on May 24) as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 7,050 miles (11,350 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops, above a northern latitude of approximately 49 degrees.

Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager.

JUNO spacecraft orbiting Jupiter

JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam.

More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu.

Image, Animation,Text, Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstäd/Seán Doran.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Finds Tropical Storm Gordon’s Strength East of Its Center

NASA - EOS Aqua Mission logo.

Sep. 04, 2018

Gordon (Atlantic Ocean) 2018

After drenching south Florida, Tropical Storm Gordon moved into the eastern Gulf of Mexico and is headed to the northwest. NASA’s Aqua satellite found three areas of the strongest storms east of Gordon’s center when it passed overhead on Sept. 4 .

Image above: At 4:05 a.m. EDT (0805 UTC) on Sept. 4, the MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite looked at Tropical Storm Gordon in infrared light. MODIS found coldest cloud tops (red) had temperatures near minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius) in three areas east of the center. Image Credits: NASA/NRL.

Infrared satellite data on Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 4:05 a.m. EDT (0805 UTC) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite revealed several strongest areas in Gordon where cloud top temperatures were indicative of strong storms and heavy rainmakers. In those areas, MODIS found coldest cloud tops had temperatures near minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius). NASA research has found that cloud top temperatures that cold have the capability to generate heavy rainfall.

At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the National Hurricane Center or NHC noted “The storm has a small CDO [central dense overcast] with convective banding features primarily over the eastern semicircle of the circulation.” It is in the eastern semicircle where Aqua found the strongest storms.

There are numerous watches and warnings in effect as Gordon is forecast to track through the Gulf of Mexico and make landfall along the northern Gulf coast. NHC said A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for Shell Beach to Dauphin Island, Alabama. A Storm Surge Watch is in effect from west of Shell Beach to the Mouth of the Mississippi River and east of Dauphin Island to Navarre, Florida. A Hurricane Warning is in effect for. The mouth of the Pearl River to the Alabama-Florida Border. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for west of the mouth of the Pearl River to east of Morgan City, Louisiana, including Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas and from the Alabama-Florida Border to Okaloosa-Walton County Line, Florida..

At 8 a.m. EDT (1200 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Gordon was located near latitude 28.1 degrees north and longitude 86.2 degrees west. That’s about 190 miles (305 km) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Gordon is moving toward the west-northwest near 15 mph (25 kph). A west-northwestward to northwestward motion with some decrease in forward speed is expected over the next few days.

Aqua satellite. Image Credit: NASA

NHC said that maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph (100 kph) with higher gusts.  Some strengthening is expected today, and Gordon is forecast to be a hurricane when it makes landfall along the north-central Gulf Coast.  Rapid weakening is expected after Gordon moves inland.

On the forecast track, the center of Gordon will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico today, and will approach the north-central Gulf Coast within the warning area late this afternoon or evening, and move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley tonight or early Wednesday, Sept. 5.

For updates on Gordon, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

NASA’s Aqua satellite: https://aqua.nasa.gov/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, by Rob Gutro.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Saturn's famous hexagon may tower above the clouds

ESA - Cassini Mission to Saturn logo.

04 September 2018

The long-lived international Cassini mission has revealed a surprising feature emerging at Saturn's northern pole as it nears summertime: a warming, high-altitude vortex with a hexagonal shape, akin to the famous hexagon seen deeper down in Saturn's clouds. This suggests that the lower-altitude hexagon may influence what happens up above, and that it could be a towering structure spanning hundreds of kilometres in height.

When Cassini arrived at the Saturnian system in 2004, the southern hemisphere was enjoying summertime, while the northern was in the midst of winter. The spacecraft spied a broad, warm, high-altitude vortex at Saturn's southern pole, but none at the planet's northern pole.

A new long-term study has now spotted the first glimpses of a northern polar vortex forming high in the atmosphere as Saturn's northern hemisphere approached summertime. This warm vortex sits hundreds of kilometres above the clouds, in a layer of atmosphere known as the stratosphere, and reveals an unexpected surprise.

Animation above: Saturn's northern polar hexagon in motion. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University.

"The edges of this newly-found vortex appear to be hexagonal, precisely matching a famous and bizarre hexagonal cloud pattern we see deeper down in Saturn's atmosphere," says Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester, UK, lead author of the new study.

"While we did expect to see a vortex of some kind at Saturn's north pole as it grew warmer, its shape is really surprising. Either a hexagon has spawned spontaneously and identically at two different altitudes, one lower in the clouds and one high in the stratosphere, or the hexagon is in fact a towering structure spanning a vertical range of several hundred kilometres."

Saturn's cloud levels host the majority of the planet's weather, including the pre-existing north polar hexagon. This feature was discovered by NASA's Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s and has been studied for decades; it is a long-lasting wave potentially tied to Saturn's rotation, a type of phenomenon also seen on Earth in structures such as the Polar Jet Stream.

Its properties were revealed in detail by Cassini, which observed it in multiple wavelengths – from the ultraviolet to the infrared – using instruments including its Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). However, at the start of the mission this instrument could not peer further up in the northern stratosphere, which had temperatures around -158 degrees Celsius – some 20 degrees too cold for reliable CIRS infrared observations – leaving these higher-altitude regions relatively unexplored for many years.

"One Saturnian year spans roughly 30 Earth years, so the winters are long," adds co-author Sandrine Guerlet from Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, France.

"Saturn only began to emerge from the depths of northern winter in 2009, and gradually warmed up as the northern hemisphere approached summertime."

A strange process at play within Saturn's atmosphere sped up this warming: as air sank at the north pole, the upper hexagon warmed increasingly quickly, and the transport of air downwards made the abundance of several minor species more concentrated. The increased temperature allowed Fletcher and colleagues to study the polar vortex in infrared light.

"We were able to use the CIRS instrument to explore the northern stratosphere for the first time, from 2014 onwards," adds Guerlet. "As the polar vortex became more and more visible, we noticed it had hexagonal edges, and realised that we were seeing the pre-existing hexagon at much higher altitudes than previously thought."

Image above: Brightness maps of the stratospheric hexagonal vortex at Saturn’s north pole. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Leicester/GSFC/L.N. Fletcher et al. 2018.

This indicates that Saturn's two poles behave very differently – there was no hexagon at the south pole, either at the cloud tops or above, when it was observed early in Cassini's mission during southern summer. The northern vortex is also nowhere near as mature as the southern vortex, as it is cooler, and displays different dynamics from its southern counterpart.

"This could mean that there's a fundamental asymmetry between Saturn's poles that we're yet to understand, or it could mean that the north polar vortex was still developing in our last observations and kept doing so after Cassini's demise," adds Fletcher. The Cassini mission came to an end in September 2017.

The presence of a hexagon way up in Saturn's northern stratosphere, hundreds of kilometres above the clouds, suggests that there is much more to learn about the dynamics at play in the gas giant's atmosphere.

A single, towering hexagonal structure that stretches up through the atmosphere would be unlikely given that wind conditions change considerably with altitude. However, by investigating the atmospheric properties in the northern region, Fletcher and colleagues also determined that waves like the hexagon should be unable to propagate upwards –  they should remain trapped in the cloud-tops, as previously thought.

"One way that wave 'information' can leak upwards is via a process called evanescence, where the strength of a wave decays with height but is just about strong enough to still persist up into the stratosphere," explains Fletcher. "We simply need to know more. It's quite frustrating that we only discovered this stratospheric hexagon right at the end of Cassini's lifespan."

Image above: Saturn's hexagon, greyscale. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Understanding how and why Saturn's north polar vortex has assumed a hexagonal shape will shed light on how phenomena deeper down in an atmosphere can influence the environment high up above, something that is of particular interest to scientists trying to figure out how energy is transported around in planetary atmospheres.

Saturn's north polar region is expected to continue developing in coming years; the northern hemisphere passed summer solstice in May 2017, and is on track for its autumn equinox in 2024.

"Saturn's northern hexagon is an iconic feature on one of the most charismatic members of the Solar System, so to discover that it still holds major mysteries is very exciting," says Nicolas Altobelli, ESA Project Scientist for the Cassini-Huygens mission.

"The Cassini spacecraft continued to provide new insights and discoveries right up to the very end. Without a capable spacecraft like Cassini, these mysteries would have remained unexplored. It shows just what can be accomplished by an international team sending a sophisticated robotic explorer to a previously unexplored destination – with results that keep flowing even when the mission itself has ended."

Notes for editors:

The paper "A Hexagon in Saturn's Northern Stratosphere Surrounding the Emerging Summertime Polar Vortex" by L. N. Fletcher et al. is published in Nature Communications: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06017-3

The Principal Investigator of Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) is Michael Flasar (NASA/GSFC, USA).

Cassini-Huygens is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA, and ASI, the Italian space agency. More information on the mission can be found here: http://sci.esa.int/cassini-huygens

This study was partially supported by the European Research Council Consolidator Grant GIANTCLIMES.

Animation (mentioned), Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: ESA/Nicolas Altobelli/Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD)/Sandrine Guerlet/University of Leicester/Leigh Fletcher.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Large Hadron collider celebrates 10 years

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

Sept. 4, 2018

The most powerful particle accelerator in the world has made it possible to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson.

On 10 September 2008, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was started at CERN. The physicists had at the time placed a lot of hopes in this formidable machine to dissect the matter. Ten years later, they can say they are satisfied.

The most powerful particle accelerator in the world has allowed to confirm experimentally, in 2012, the existence of the Higgs boson. Elusive until then, this boson was only deduced from the theory. It explains why subatomic particles have a mass and why others do not have one.

Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Image Credit: CERN

This discovery was a big step forward in understanding the infinitely small and supported the standard model of particle physics, the theory describing particles and their interactions. Physicists have not yet had to change all their plans to adapt to a new reality.

Even though Higgs bunching has been a priority mission for the LHC, the accelerator also allows other advances in areas worthy of a science fiction series. Experiments are thus conducted on the mysterious dark matter, the properties of antimatter, the search for hidden dimensions.

A jewel of technology

The LHC is not only one of the most extraordinary machines ever built. The particle accelerator also represents an extraordinary technological feat. Buried 100 meters underground, the 27-kilometer ring is lined with powerful magnets charged with guiding beams of protons and ions.

The tube is cooled to minus 271 degrees Celsius, 2 degrees more than the absolute zero, so that the magnets can operate in the state of superconducting. It is in this freezer that the collisions between protons occur, at energies that had never before reached an accelerator.

Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Animation Credit: CERN

In a first phase of operation of the LHC, the protons clashed at 7 TeV (teraelectronvolt). In 2015, collision energy gradually increased to 13 TeV. By 2021, this value will even be increased to 14 TeV, the maximum capacity of the machine.

At such levels of energy, scientists go on to explore unknown lands, and surprises could await them, pushing them to radically change their worldview. The LHC's competitors do not come close to it in this area. Thus, the Fermilab of Chicago reaches 2 TeV.

Already after

The LHC is scheduled to run until 2040. By that time the accelerator will undergo a large moult to significantly increase the number of proton collisions it produces. Currently, the number of collisions is 1 billion per second. In 2026, this figure will be multiplied by five.

CERN - Actual configuration. Image Credit: Phillipe Mouche.

Scientists will have more data to analyze and more likely to come across new events. Particles still invisible today could be detected with the improved machine. The Higgs boson can also be better studied because it will be produced in larger quantities.

Building a machine such as the LHC takes time and especially anticipation. Thus, CERN is already thinking of the successor of the Large Hadron Collider. It would be an accelerator of 100 kilometers in circumference. It would be located astride the Franco-Swiss border, as is the LHC.

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 22 Member States.

Related link:

Large Hadron Collider (LHC): https://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: https://home.cern/

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/ATS/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

ISS: Received the first scientific data from the satellites "SiriusSat-1 & 2"

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.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch