You just might call this the collective work of the next generation of space researchers. Assistance and technology was also provided by the Air Force Research Lab and a small space business called One Stop Satellite Solutions.
JAWSAT will ride into orbit on the nose of a stack of scrapped Minuteman missile parts and stages from the Pegasus commercial booster. The ungainly rocket is making its debut in a new project aimed at affording small government-sponsored researchers spaceflight opportunities.
The flight will give coeds, cadets and grad student researchers from Weber State University, the Air Force Academy, Stanford University and Arizona State University a taste of space experience. Even NASA has a research experiment on the flight.
JAWSAT (Joint Air Force Academy and Weber State Satellite) is basically an aluminum box that will hold instruments and experimental satellites being tested for the first time.
"Its called a Multi-Payload Adapter, but basically thats just a frame to hold and deploy these satellites," Air Force Lt. Lou Marina told space.com. Marina is the rockets deputy project manager. "Some of them are as small as a deck of cards."
The Weber State students that designed JAWSAT call it "the stack". Thats because it will carry the satellites during their blastoff and then release them, one by one, into orbit. Despite its important role in the launch, JAWSAT only weights 30 pounds -- on Earth.
But during the rocket ride through the atmosphere JAWSAT will shake and rattle under stresses 300 times its weight. Inside JAWSAT, along with its satellites, is a new control system for releasing small craft. This new device, an attitude controller, will allow small satellites to behave in space like larger, more expensive craft. Many small satellites cant carry attitude control systems or expensive rocket thrusters to maintain precise orbits.
The Weber State device is a small rotating wheel whose actions give the satellites greater stability. As a result, tiny spacecraft might be able to orbit with greater precision. Why is that important? Such precise but small satellites could provide the orbital infrastructure for such future services as faxes via wrist computers, or the exact location of package delivery via space. The small size of the satellites would keep the cost of such services low.
JAWSAT's space "stack" frame is composed of aluminum panels, which can be arranged in several ways, depending on different satellite designs. It will first hold, then deploy four mini-satellites into space. Two experiments will remain attached to JAWSAT, itself acting as a fifth satellite on the mission. The four satellites are:
OPAL -- Called the Orbiting Picosat Automatic Launcher, OPAL is built by Stanford University students. It will release several tiny satellites called Picosats from an equally small mothership. Each of the tiny Picosats is shaped like a hockey puck and will be used to take measurements in orbit. Amateur radio operators will stay in touch with OPAL and its swarm of Picosats.
ASUSAT 1 -- The ASUSAT (Arizona State University Satellite No. 1) will make space history as the first nano-satellite -- a tiny self-contained spaceship -- ever launched into orbit. Weighing just under 13 pounds, ASUSA 1 will transmit imagery back to Earth -- a record for a spacecraft of such small size. The craft will also carry into space a audio transponder for relay of amateur radio experimenters. The little spaceship will orbit the Earth for two years. University students will study its transmissions at their own university ground station.
At its peak, 350 students -- including some from area high schools -- worked on the satellite project.
FALCONSAT 1 -- Cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy designed FALCONSAT to study the effects of electronically charged particles on orbiting satellites. Voltage monitors on the satellite will collect data on the types and frequencies of the charged particles, where on the satellite body they collect, and how they change as the satellite orbits.
Unlike other U.S. satellites, FALCONSAT will pass through the auroral regions at the Earths poles, where the levels of electrical activity may change rapidly over time.
OCSE -- The Optical Calibration Sphere Experiment (OCSE) will go aloft to serve as a tracking target for New Mexicos Starfire Optical Range, located at Kirkland Air Force Base. OCSE will act as a 3.58-meter wide sphere that the optical telescope will track as it orbits overhead. The range will also take high-resolution images of the OCSE in orbit. It was manufactured by LGarde Inc.
Two other experiments will ride into orbit aboard the JAWSAT frame and remain attached to it during its stay in orbit:
PEST -- The Plasma Experiment Satellite Test (PEST) will use instruments to make characterizations of ions and electrons in the ionosphere and determine what direction they come from. The instruments were first flown and tested aboard the NASA space shuttles.
The satellite test will give scientists the chance to expand their knowledge of the environment of space out at 420 miles altitude, a region where the complete JAWSAT frame will pass over each of the Earths poles.
These regions include the aurora borealis, streams of energetic particles, and the flow of plasma gas. The satellite will operate attached to the JAWSAT for two months.
PEST comes from the laboratories at NASAs Marshall Spaceflight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
ACP -- The Attitude Control Platform (ACP) is Weber State Universitys new attitude control flywheel system. Designed by students to create a low cost three axis stabilization system for small satellites, ACP will test a rotating wheel device capable of yielding positioning accuracy for satellites to one tenth of a degree but costing only one twenty-fifth of current flywheel designs.
Using the flywheel system, controllers will be able to move, re-orient and position satellites during various phases of their orbital missions. The flywheels are flown in sets of four units, making failure of any one wheel possible without the risk of loss of control of the spacecraft.
The ACP will also fly a magnetometer to measure all three components of the magnetic field that can affect satellite locations in space.
advertisement
