NSF Taps Tiny CubeSats for Big Space Science
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Cubesats, shown above being built at Montana State University, provide a relatively inexpensive way for students to see their projects designed, built, tested, launched and operated in space while still in school. CREDIT: MSU/Erin Raley |
This story was updated at 3:07 p.m. EDT.
GOLDEN,
The
Arlington, Va.-based NSF?s interest in
CubeSats stems from a recommendation in the June 2006 ?Report of the
Assessment Committee for the National Space Weather Program — an interagency
initiative to speed improvement of space weather services.?
One of the
report?s recommendations emphasized that agencies involved in space weather
work should look into the feasibility of using micro-satellites with
miniaturized sensors to provide cost-effective science and operational data
sources for space weather applications such as: improving understanding
of space weather, helping predict conditions in the space environment and
measuring the physical processes that affect the state of the sun and solar
wind, as well as impacts they have upon Earth?s magnetosphere, ionosphere and
upper atmosphere.
Training
the next generation
The first
solicitation for mission proposals in the new NSF program was issued in late
February, resulting in proposals for 29 CubeSat
science missions, explained Therese Moretto
Jorgensen, program director in the Upper Atmospheric Research Section of NSF?s
Geosciences Directorate, Division of Atmospheric Sciences.
On Tuesday, the NSF selected "CubeSat-based Ground-to-Space Bistatic Radar Experiment — Radio Aurora Explorer," a collaborative space science project to be undertaken by Hasan Bahcivan of SRI International of Menlo Park, Calif. and James Cutler of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. The selected experiment is slated to fly in December 2009.
?If anybody
thought that these CubeSats would not do things ?
this set of proposals just proved everybody so wrong,? Jorgensen told SPACE.com.
?There are a lot of questions in space weather research that are still being
struggled with ? even though we?ve been flying satellites for many years now,?
she said. Furthermore, the NSF program is meant to help train the next
generation of experimental space scientists and aerospace engineers, she added.
NSF
organized a workshop in May 2007 to bring together elements of the small
satellite community. That gathering, Jorgensen said, focused attention not only
on the scientific utility of small spacecraft, but also spotlighted the
prospect that CubeSats can provide training
opportunities for young engineers.
That
combining of science research needs and young professional development is one
of NSF?s strong desires, Jorgensen added. However, what also came out of last year?s
meeting, she said, was appreciating the scarcity of affordable launch.
Spring-loaded
research
One focus
of the CubeSat program is to facilitate launch of satellites
as secondary payloads on existing missions using the standardized CubeSat deployment system, the Poly Picosatellite
Orbital Deployer, or P-POD.
Designed by
the Aerospace Engineering Department at
Launch of
the P-PODS will be as auxiliary payloads on Department of Defense, NASA or
commercial launches, according to the NSF program solicitation.
?We don?t
have a big NASA-type budget to do this. That?s why we are starting our program
with CubeSat. Student missions are by nature low
cost. I thought it was worth a shot,? Jorgensen said.
The 2007
workshop underscored the feasibility that scientific satellite missions in the
$1 million to $10 million range (including launch) are possible. However, while
launches and launch opportunities are plentiful, securing regular, low-cost
access to space for small scientific payloads is not easy, Jorgensen said.
Low-cost
way
CubeSats
are small. They typically measure about
Having NSF
foot the bill on CubeSat work — rather than NASA — ?is
a real change,? said Bob Twiggs, CubeSat project
co-director in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford
University in California. ?They want to do space weather, and I believe the
only way to get some space missions with shrinking budgets is to go this
low-cost way,? he told SPACE.com.
Twiggs said
the CubeSat community views NSF?s interest — as well
as the recent announcement that the U.S. Army may be building CubeSats — as all good news, seemingly taking the original
concept of a ?toy satellite? into the realm of being able to do real space
missions with them.
Jorgensen
said the first launch opportunity for the NSF satellite program to support
space weather and atmospheric research will be with the Department of Defense
Space Test Program — a launch slated for December 2009 aboard a Minotaur-4
launch vehicle out of
Starting
a pipeline
The NSF
will spend $500,000 to start the program, Jorgensen said, but her wish is to
add another $1 million in 2009. ?We hope to start a pipeline of missions
depending on how the budget turns out for 2009. We will start fast or slow, but
we are committed to start a pipeline.?
The goal of
the NSF program is to construct a five- to 10-year program with annual proposal
competitions. The CubeSat
support is a first step, she said. Another goal is to secure a series of
regular, low-cost launches, spawned by establishing partnerships with other
government agencies and private industry, Jorgensen said.
While the CubeSat proposals to NSF showed the strength, creativity
and innovation of the community, Jorgensen said more work appears to be needed
on three-axis stabilization of the small spacecraft. Still, much of the CubeSat work done during the last several years has created
a foundation from which to draw from. ?We are leveraging off that whole
development that has already happened,? she said.
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