NASA is aiming to launch a line of small satellites called
“PhoneSats” that are cheaper to make and easier to build than those it
has produced in the past. To achieve this, engineers are using
unmodified Android smartphones — in one prototype, HTC’s Nexus One, and
in another, Samsung’s Nexus S — to perform many of a satellite’s key
functions.
As NASA explains on its website,
these off-the-shelf smartphones “offer a wealth of capabilities needed
for satellite systems, including fast processors, versatile operating
systems, multiple miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS
receivers and several radios.”
“This approach allows engineers to see what capabilities commercial
technologies can provide, rather than trying to custom-design technology
solutions to meet set requirements,” NASA adds.
The total cost for building one of these prototype satellites costs a
mere $3,500. Three are expected to launch aboard the first flight of
Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket from a NASA flight
facility at Wallops Island, Va., later this year.
After spending more than 240 days "sailing" around the Earth, NASA's
NanoSail-D -- a nanosatellite that deployed NASA's first-ever solar sail
in low-Earth orbit -- has successfully completed its Earth orbiting
mission.
Launched to space Nov. 19, 2010 as a payload on NASA's FASTSAT, a small satellite, NanoSail-D's sail deployed on Jan. 20.
The flight phase of the mission successfully demonstrated a deorbit
capability that could potentially be used to bring down decommissioned
satellites and space debris by re-entering and totally burning up in the
Earth's atmosphere. The team continues to analyze the orbital data to
determine how future satellites can use this new technology.
A main objective of the NanoSail-D mission was to demonstrate and test
the deorbiting capabilities of a large low mass high surface area sail.
"The NanoSail-D mission produced a wealth of data that will be useful in
understanding how these types of passive deorbit devices react to the
upper atmosphere," said Joe Casas, FASTSAT project scientist at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
"The data collected from the mission is being evaluated, said Casas, in
conjunction with data from FASTSAT science experiments intended to study
and better understand the drag influences of Earth's upper atmosphere
on satellite orbital re-entry."
The FASTSAT science experiments are led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md. and sponsored by the Department of Defense
Space Experiments Review Board which is supported by the Department of
Defense Space Test Program.
Initial assessment indicates NanoSail-D exhibited the predicted cyclical
deorbit rate behavior that was only previously theorized by
researchers.
"The final rate of descent depended on the nature of solar activity, the
density of the atmosphere surrounding NanoSail-D and the angle of the
sail to the orbital track," said Dean Alhorn, principal investigator for
NanoSail-D at Marshall Space Flight Center. "It is astounding to see
how the satellite reacted to the sun's solar pressure. The recent solar
flares increased the drag and brought the nanosatellite back home
quickly."
NanoSail-D orbited the Earth for 240 days performing well beyond
expectations and burned up during reentry to Earth's atmosphere on Sept.
17.
NASA formed a partnership with Spaceweather.com to engage the amateur
astronomy community to submit images of the orbiting NanoSail-D solar
sail during the flight phase of the mission. NanoSail-D was a very
elusive target to spot in the night sky -- at times very bright and
other times difficult to see at all. Many ground observations were made
over the course of the mission. The imaging challenge concluded with
NanoSail-D's deorbit. Winners will be announced in early 2012.
The NanoSail-D experiment was managed at the Marshall Center, and
designed and built by engineers in Huntsville. Additional design,
testing, integration and execution of key spacecraft bus development and
deployment support operation activities were conducted by engineers at
NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The experiment is
the result of a collaborative partnership between NASA; the Department
of Defense Space Test Program, and the U.S. Army Space and Missile
Defense Command, the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation,
Dynetics Inc. and Mantech Nexolve Corp.
6:29 PM
Vishal Kottarathil
