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Mars Base

ESTCube-1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/ESTCube-1

scibyte86 ESTCube

shared by Mars Base on 13 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • scheduled to be launched to orbit in second half of 2013
  • Student Satellite is an educational project that university and high school students can participate in
  • The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10x10x11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.
  • ...44 more annotations...
  • According to the CubeSat standard there are three different sized CubeSats corresponding to size 1U, 2U and 3U. Base side lengths are the same but height is 2 to 3 times bigger than 1U CubeSats
  • Mass is also set in CubeSat standard, the highest possible mass for 1U CubeSat is 1300 grams, 2U CubeSat 2600 grams and 3U CubeSat 4000 grams
  • CubeSat base side length must be 100.0±0.1 millimeters and satellite height must be 113.5±0.1 mm
  • the Estonian satellite
  • a 1U CubeSat
  • Although
  • its main purpose was to educate students, the satellite does have a scientific purpose.
  • On board of the satellite is an electric solar wind sail (e-sail) which was created by a Finnish scientist Pekka Janhunen
  • it is the first real experimentation of the e-sail
  • 10 meters of e-sail 50 to 20 micrometers thick wire of high-technology structure so-called Heytether will be deployed from the satellite.
  • The deployment of the Heytether can be detected by decrease of the satellite's speed of rotation or by a on-board camera
  • To control the loaded solar wind sail elements interaction with the plasma surrounding the earth and the effect it has on the spacecraft spinning speed the spacecraft has two on-board nanotechnologic electron emitters/gun
  • The electron emitters are connected to the e-sail element and by shooting out electrons it loads the e-sail element positively to 500 volts
  • The positive ions in the plasma push the e-sail element and have an influence on the satellites rotation speed
  • The effect of the e-sail is measured by the change in rotation speed
  • The camera is used to take a picture of Earth and the successfully deployed Heytether. [edit]
  • ESTCube-1 will be sent to orbit by the European Space Agency's rocket Vega in spring of 2013
  • Start in spring of 2013
  • Half an hour after the satellites deployment from the start capsule satellites antennas will be opened and radio transmitter and important subsystems will be switched on
  • First days or weeks will be used to test the satellite and set it to work on full capacity.
  • Orienting the satellite so the on-board camera will be faced to earth
  • trying to take a picture of Estonia
  • Rotating the satellite on an axis with a speed of 1 revolution per second
  • E-sail element deployment from the satellite by a centrifugal force and confirming the deployment via the on-board camera
  • Activating the electron emitter and loading the e-sail
  • Measuring the e-sails and Lorentz force by satellites revolutions per second
  • If possible using the negatively charged e-sail to take the satellite off orbit and burn it in the earths atmosphere
  • If everything goes perfect the mission can be completed within a few weeks to a month
  • Lifespan of the satellite
  • Measurements and weight
  • Scientific purpose
  • Communicating with the satellite
  • held by two International Amateur Radio Unions three registered frequencies
  • Periodic but very slow communication is done on a telegraphic signal on a frequency of 437.250 MHz
  • the most important satellite parameters are transmitted every 3 to 5 minutes
  • For fast connections FSK-modulation radio signal on a frequency of 437.505 MHz with a 9600 baud connection speed and AX.25 standard is used.
  • Somewhat slow connection speed is caused by the usage of amateur radio frequencies which allow a maximum of 25 kiloherz bandwidth
  • Fast connection is used only when the satellite has been given a specific
  • Using the GFSK-modulation maximum possible connection speed is 19,200 bits per second
  • Software
  • FreeRTOS on the satellite's Command and Data Handling System and camera module
  • TinyOS on the satellite's communication module
  • Financing and costs
  • Cheapest possibility to send a satellite onto orbit is offered by European Space Agency. Because Estonia is an associated member of ESA most of the launch expenses (about 70,000 euros) will be covered from Estonian member fee for educational expenses. With the launch total expenses for the project are approximately 100,000 euros.
Mars Base

How Can You See a Satellite View of Your House? - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ree-satellite-view-of-my-house

scibyte59 GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 14 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • there are more than 8,000 satellites currently orbiting the Earth
  • The vast majority
  • are relaying data to and from the Earth
  • ...28 more annotations...
  • If you want to
  • see a satellite image of the entire planet, there are
  • weather satellites
  • NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) release images of an entire hemisphere of planet Earth every 3 hours
  • you can see major weather patterns affecting parts of the Earth. But you really can’t see any specific spot on Earth with any detail
  • these satellite views is that they’re live.
  • The weather systems
  • are happening on the planet right now
  • If you don’t want a live view
  • check out
  • images produced by NASA. Here’s a composite photograph that shows the Earth’s Western Hemisphere, and here’s a view of the Earth’s Eastern Hemisphere.
  • There were also some amazing new satellite images of the Earth released from the European Space Agency’s 3rd generation Meteosat spacecraft
  • zoom in, and see some pictures of houses from space
  • Google Maps and the other internet mapping services are really just customers for the satellite services that actually take these photographs from space
  • There are a few major services on the market, including GeoEye
  • DigitalGlobe and Spot Image.
  • Each company has a fleet of Earth observation satellites, with a capability of resolving features on the surface of the Earth as small as about 45 cm (18 inches). In other words, an object 45 centimeters across would appear as a single pixel in their photographs
  • GeoEye – 5 satellites: IKONOS, OrbView-2, OrbView-3, GeoEye-1, GeoEye-2 (in 2013).
  • DigitalGlobe – 4 satellites: Early Bird 1, Quickbird, WorldView-1, Worldview-2
  • Spot Image – 2 satellites: Spot 4, Spot 5
  • Each of these services allow customers to purchase satellite imagery directly
  • the prices are
  • hundreds or even thousands of dollars for satellite imagery
  • typically can’t buy directly from the satellite company itself
  • All of the free satellite images you’re accessing were captured by various spacecraft over the last couple of years
  • . A live satellite view of your house, is still a few years off.
  • you can access a live broadcast from NASA’s International Space Station. About 40% of the time, if you follow this link you can see a live view of Earth from the space station.
  • Another service called Urthecast will be attaching a high definition camera to the International Space Station in 2013 to broadcast a live view of Earth from space.
Mars Base

Robot Space 'Gas Attendant' Could Salvage Old Satellites by 2015 | Satellite Refueling ... - 0 views

www.space.com/ation-satellite-refueling.html

scibyte34 satellite

shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • middle of the decade
  • possible to salvage satellites that run out of fuel or suffer minor malfunctions in orbit
  • Canada-based aerospace firm
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • designing a spacecraft that will serve as an orbiting gas station and mechanic.
  • will be able to top off satellites' fuel tanks
  • perform minor repairs as needed
  • first servicing satellite could be ready to go by 2015 or 2016
  • Currently, most satellites last only as long as their stores of onboard propellant allow
  • When a spacecraft runs out of fuel, it essentially turns into a very expensive piece of space junk, adding to the massive cloud of debris already clogging Earth orbit.
  • servicing spacecraft would be controlled from the ground
  • could operate with varying degrees of autonomy
  • when the SIS spacecraft itself runs low on fuel, a separately launched "tanker" would replenish its supply of propellant, allowing the vehicle to continue servicing satellites far into the future.
  • MDA thought it found that customer last year.
  • However, the two companies announced last month that the deal is off
  • I guess we were not able to meet those datelines for the original plan, due to various factors
  • isn't the only business or organization working to develop satellite-servicing technology
  • Aerospace firm Vivisat, for example, is designing a spacecraft called the Mission Extension Vehicle, which would dock to satellites and provide propulsion and attitude control.
  • The U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has started a program called Phoenix, which seeks to recycle still-functioning pieces of defunct satellites and incorporate them into new space systems for low cost.
  • 16 February 2012
Mars Base

DARPA Seeks Ideas to Recycle Space Junk Into New Satellites | Space Junk & Orbital Debr... - 0 views

www.space.com/ycling-phoenix-satellites.html

scibyte34 satellites debris

shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • : 20 October 2011
  • United States Department of Defense is looking for ways to repurpose space junk
  • started a program called Phoenix, which seeks to recycle still-functioning pieces of defunct satellites and incorporate them into new space systems on the cheap
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • snag still-working antennas from the many retired and dead satellites in geosynchronous orbit — about 22,000 miles (35,406 kilometers) above Earth — and attach them to smaller "satlets," or nanosatellites, launched from Earth.
  • tender vehicle would cruise over to a satlet, pluck it out of its housing and ferry it to the appropriate defunct satellite. The tender would then switch the antenna over from the retired satellite to the satlet, creating a "new," and relatively cheap, satellite using previously useless space junk.
  • Satellites in GEO are not designed to be disassembled or repaired, so it's not a matter of simply removing some nuts and bolts
  • requires new remote imaging and robotics technology and special tools to grip, cut, and modify complex systems
Mars Base

Tiny Satellites' Big Mission: Going Beyond Earth Orbit | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/satellites-head-for-space.html

scibyte85 cubesat

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Two CubeSats, designed by NASA's JPL and three university partners, are soon to go where no CubeSats have gone before: beyond Earth orbit.
  • The space agency’s twin
  • satellites,
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • , will be the first CubeSats to leave Earth's orbit for interplanetary space.
  • CubeSats are tiny satellites, some no bigger than four inches (10 cm) on each side, sent into orbit as secondary payloads on other launch vehicles
  • If the interplanetary test launch succeeds, CubeSats could someday blanket the solar system, conducting cheap, high-risk missions to comets, asteroids, moons and planets
  • Just where the pioneering CubeSats will go is still unclear, however, since it’s not known yet which model rocket will be used for launch
  • The first mission will be basically an escape trajectory
  • he rocket's going to send us in some unknown direction
  • Lacking much propulsion or scientific instrumentation, the INSPIRE craft are a test of whether tiny machines can survive the harsh environment of space.
  • The INSPIRE project has been approved by NASA to launch sometime between 2014 and 2016, but a specific launch vehicle hasn't been selected.
  • One of the challenges of the project is figuring how the tiny satellites will communicate with Earth.
  • CubeSats are far cheaper than a traditional space mission but they lack room for complex communications systems or large power sources.
  • As we head away from Earth, we're talking about using much larger antennas" to communicate with the low-powered craf
  • Furthermore, once a spacecraft leaves the protective magnetic field surrounding Earth, it's at risk of failure from solar radiation
  • Traditional satellites are built with more expensive "radiation-hardened" components
  • satellites are instead built to respond to a shut-down command from Earth if space weather systems detect an oncoming solar flare
Mars Base

Recent Satellite Crashes Bring Space Junk Problem Into Public Eye | Space Junk & Orbita... - 0 views

www.space.com/shes-public-consciousness.html

scibyte29 satellite crash multimedia

shared by Mars Base on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • 12 January 2012
  • news that a failed Russian Mars probe will come crashing back to Earth in the next few days
  • public perception that the sky is falling —
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • huge pieces of space junk could rain down on us at any moment.
  • Phobos-Grunt spacecraft
  • re-enter the atmosphere sometime between Saturday and Monday (Jan. 14 to Jan. 16).
  • the third uncontrolled satellite re-entry in four months
  • claims are handled on a case-by-case basis, you might be surprised to learn damage from satellite debris, aka space junk, likely would be covered under most insurance policies
  • Farmers Insurance, aired a commercial during this winter's college football bowl games offering similar assurances to its current and potential customers.
  • Experts predict that Russia's failed Mars probe Phobos-Grunt will crash back to Earth in mid-January 2012. This artist's concept shows fuel burning from a ruptured fuel tank as the spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere.CREDIT: Michael Carroll
  • NASA estimates that our planet's orbital debris cloud contains more than 500,000 pieces larger than a marble and more than 20,000 at least as big as a softball
  • space junk poses little threat to people on the ground. Most pieces of falling satellites burn up the atmosphere
  • the bits that make it through are likely to land harmlessly in the ocean or on uninhabited land
  • To date, nobody is known to have been injured by a chunk of falling debris.
  • poses a real threat to the craft that orbit and observe our planet and provide navigation and telecommunications services
  • 2009, for example, the Iridium 33 communications satellite was destroyed when it slammed into a defunct Russian satellite.
  • This computer illustration depicts the density of space junk around Earth in low-Earth orbit.CREDIT: ESA
Mars Base

Satellite Left Stranded by SpaceX Rocket Falls From Space | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ded-satellite-falls-space.html

scibyte67 Orbcomm

shared by Mars Base on 13 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Orbcomm
  • satellite, launched Oct. 7 into a bad orbit by a Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket
  • provided enough data to proceed with the launch of the full constellation starting next year.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • In its statement, Orbcomm suggested that i
  • had enough access to the satellite in less than four days in orbit to validate the performance of its major subsystems.
  • Orbcomm said that, had its satellite been the primary payload on SpaceX’s Oct. 7 flight, the mission would have been a success
  • OG2 satellite bus systems including power, attitude control, thermal and data handling were also tested to verify proper operation
  • The solar array and communications antenna deployments were successful
  • Orbcomm requested that SpaceX carry one of their small satellites
  • few hundred pounds, vs. Dragon at over 12,000 pounds
  • on this flight so that they could gather test data before we launch their full constellation next year.
  • The higher the orbit, the more test data they can gather, so they requested that we attempt to restart and raise altitude
  • NASA agreed to allow that, but only on condition that there be substantial propellant reserves, since the orbit would be close to the space station
  • Orbcomm understood from the beginning that the orbit-raising maneuver was tentative
  • They accepted that there was a high risk of their satellite remaining at the Dragon insertion orbit.
Mars Base

Liftoff! Delta IV Launches Next Generation GPS Satellite - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-next-generation-gps-satellite

scibyte66 GPS

shared by Mars Base on 05 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • A Delta IV rocket launched
  • sending a next-generation Global Positioning System satellite into orbit
  • satellite that will be part of the GPS system that is used by both civilians and the military
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • will replace a 19-year-old navigation satellite in the global system that includes 31 operational satellites on-orbit which broadcast position
  • the third of 12 planned launches to provide improved GPS signals
  • featuring improved anti-jam technology, more precise atomic clocks, an upgraded civilian channel for commercial aviation and on-board processors that can be reprogrammed in flight
Mars Base

SpaceX Launches Six Commercial Satellites on Falcon 9; Landing Test Ends in "Kaboom" - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-9-landing-test-ends-in-kaboom

scibyte136 SpaceX

shared by Mars Base on 15 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • SpaceX successfully launched six ORBCOMM advanced telecommunications satellites into orbit on Monday, July 14, to significantly upgrade the speed and capacity of their existing data relay network.
  • SpaceX also used this launch opportunity to try and test the reusability of the Falcon 9′s first stage and its landing system while splashing down in the ocean
  • However, the booster did not survive the splashdown. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported that the rocket booster reentry, landing burn and leg deployment worked well, the hull of the first stage “lost integrity right after splashdown
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Musk tweeted. “Detailed review of rocket telemetry needed to tell if due to initial splashdown or subsequent tip over and body slam.”
  • SpaceX wanted to test the “flyback” ability to the rocket, slowing down the descent of the rocket with thrusters and deploying the landing legs for future launches so the first stage can be re-used
  • The previous test of the landing system was successful, but the choppy seas destroyed the stage and prevented recovery
  • the six satellites launched
  • are the first part of what the company hopes will be a 17-satellite constellation. They hope to have all 17 satellites in orbit by the end of the 2014
Mars Base

European Satellite, Out of Fuel, Will Plunge to Earth Next Month | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/goce-satellite-fall-earth.html

scibyte107

shared by Mars Base on 24 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • A European gravity-mapping satellite has run out of fuel and will likely die a fiery death in Earth's atmosphere
  • Oct. 21
  • The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, or GOCE for short, exhausted its supply of xenon fuel on
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • most of the satellite will disintegrate in the atmosphere, some smaller parts are expected to reach Earth’s surface
  • GOCE satellite launched in March 2009 on a planned two-year mission to map the variations in Earth's gravity field.
  • The spacecraft consumed fuel at a much lower rate than expected, however, allowing GOCE to continue gathering data far beyond its expected lifespan
  • the most accurate gravity data ever available to scientists
Mars Base

NASA beams Mona Lisa to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the moon (w/ video) - 0 views

phys.org/...lisa-lunar-reconnaissance.html

scibyte78

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • To clean up transmission errors introduced by Earth's atmosphere (left), Goddard scientists applied Reed-Solomon error correction (right), which is commonly used in CDs and DVDs.
  • Typical errors include missing pixels (white) and false signals (black). The white stripe indicates a brief period when transmission was paused
  • As part of the first demonstration of laser communication with a satellite at the moon, scientists with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) beamed an image of the Mona Lisa to the spacecraft from Earth.
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • he iconic image traveled nearly 240,000 miles in digital form from the Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging (NGSLR) station at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument on the spacecraft.
  • By transmitting the image piggyback on laser pulses that are routinely sent to track LOLA's position, the team achieved simultaneous laser communication and tracking.
  • This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances
  • "In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use
  • In the more distant future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide
  • Typically, satellites that go beyond Earth orbit use radio waves for tracking and communication
  • LRO is the only satellite in orbit around a body other than Earth to be tracked by laser as well.
  • Precise timing was the key to transmitting the image
  • divided the Mona Lisa image into an array of 152 pixels by 200 pixels
  • Every pixel was converted into a shade of gray, represented by a number between zero and 4,095.
  • Each pixel was transmitted by a laser pulse, with the pulse being fired in one of 4,096 possible time slots during a brief time window allotted for laser tracking
  • he complete image was transmitted at a data rate of about 300 bits per second.
  • The laser pulses were received by LRO's LOLA instrument, which reconstructed the image based on the arrival times of the laser pulses from Earth
  • This was accomplished without interfering with LOLA's primary task of mapping the moon's elevation and terrain and NGSLR's primary task of tracking LRO.
  • The success of the laser transmission was verified by returning the image to Earth using the spacecraft's radio telemetry system.
  • Turbulence in Earth's atmosphere introduced transmission errors even when the sky was clear.
  • To overcome these effects,
  • employed Reed-Solomon coding, which is the same type of error-correction code commonly used in CDs and DVDs.
  • The next step after LLCD is the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), NASA's first long-duration optical communications mission.
Mars Base

Cleaning up Earth's orbit: A Swiss satellite to tackle space debris - 0 views

actu.epfl.ch/...orbit-a-swiss-satellite-to-tac

scibyte34 satellite debris

shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 17 Feb 12
     
    Swiss satellite to tackle space debris
Mars Base

Swiss satellite to tackle space debris (w/ video) - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...llite-tackle-space-debris.html

scibyte34 satellite debris

shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Swiss Space Center at EPFL is announcing today the launch of CleanSpace One, a project to develop and build the first installment of a family of satellites specially designed to clean up space debris.
  • NASA keeps close tabs on at least 16,000 of these objects that are larger than 10 cm in diameter
  • After its launch, the cleanup satellite will have to adjust its trajectory in order to match its target’s orbital plane
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • When it gets within range of its target, which will be traveling at 28,000 km/h at an altitude of 630-750 km
Mars Base

Japanese Satellite to Write Morse Code in Sky | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ats-space-station-fitsat1.html

scibyte56 FITSAT-1

shared by Mars Base on 25 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • robotic Japanese cargo vessel now en route to the International Space Station is loaded with food, clothes, equipment — and a set of tiny amateur radio satellites, including one that will write Morse code messages in the sky
  • slated to arrive at the station
  • July 27
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • ultrasmall satellites it's carrying, which are known as cubesats, will likely remain on the orbiting lab until September
  • using the Kibo module's robotic arm.
  • One of the cubesats, FITSAT-1, will write messages in the night sky with Morse code, helping researchers test out optical communication techniques for satellites, researchers said.
  • One of FITSAT-1's experimental duties is to twinkle as an artificial star
  • just under 3 pounds (1.33 kilograms
  • high power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that will produce extremely bright flashes.
  • hope, will be observable by the unaided eye or with small binoculars
  • the cubesat's high-output LEDs will blink in flash mode, generating a Morse code beacon signal.
  • contains a neodymium magnet that forces it to always point to magnetic north, like a compass.
  • Mars Base on 25 Jul 12
     
    FITSAT-1
Mars Base

April 24 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on April 24th, died, and events - 0 views

todayinsci.com/4_24.htm

scibyte127 LookingBackApr

shared by Mars Base on 20 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • First Chinese satellite
  • In 1970, the People's Republic of China became the fifth nation with a satellite in orbit with the launch of DFH-1, from Jiuquab Satellite Launch Center. It had a design life of 15 days, and for propaganda, it transmitted the Communist China national anthem, The East is Red (in Chinese "Dongfanghong," hence the initials DFH). It had a 72-face polyhedral shape, 1-m diam., mass 173-kg. It was followed by on 3 Mar 1971 by a second DFH named SJ-1 (Practice-1). The first four nations with satellites in space were the USSR (Sputnik on 4 Oct 1957), the U.S. (Explorer-I on 31 Jan 1958), France (Astrix-1 on 26 Nov 1965 and Japan (Osumi 5, 11 Feb 1970). After China, Britain launched its Prospero satellite on 28 Oct 1972)
Mars Base

Kicksat: Crowd-funded, DIY spacecraft to float into low-Earth orbit - 0 views

phys.org/...-diy-spacecraft-low-earth.html

scibyte74 crowdsourcing

shared by Mars Base on 06 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • It'll look like hundreds of postage stamps fluttering toward Earth—each an independent satellite transmitting a signal unique to the person who helped send it to space
  • Sprites are the size of a cracker but are outfitted with solar cells, a radio transceiver and a microcontroller (
  • launching unit, is a CubeSat
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Using Kickstarter
  • raised nearly $75,000 as more than 300 people sponsored a sprite that will transmit an identifying signal, such as the initials of the donor
  • In 2013, about 250 sprites will be sent into space
  • One person, who donated $10,000, Manchester added, will get to "push the big red button" on the day of the launch.
  • NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNA) program, which provides a free launch (normally $300,000) for university space research
  • KickSat will hitch a ride in September 2013 (subject to change) from Cape Canaveral on CRS-3, the third SpaceX Falcon 9 flight destined for the International Space Station
  • A large part of the project is helping people track their own satellites with a simple software radio interface
  • From a research standpoint, Manchester is interested in the dynamics and behavior of the satellites, and plans to test how to track their positions and determine their orbits
  • KickSat is set to launch more than 200 of these tiny satellites, nicknamed "sprites," into low-Earth orbit
Mars Base

April 19 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on April 19th, died, and events - 0 views

www.todayinsci.com/...4_19.htm

scibyte126 LookingBackApr

shared by Mars Base on 12 Apr 14 - No Cached
  •  Indian satellite
  • In 1975, the first satellite built in India was launched from Volgograd Launch Station, Russia, on a Soviet Intercosmos C-1 rocket. It was named Aryabhata, after a noted 5th-century Indian mathematician. The 360-kg satellite had been built during 20 months by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Peenya, Bangalore, by a team led by Prof. U. R. Rao. Its shape was a 26-sided polygon, 1.4-m diam., with all faces covered in solar cells, except the top and bottom. It was designed to carry out experiments in X-ray astronomy, aeronomics, and solar physics, communicating with a 46-watt VHF transmitter. However, after only 4 days in orbit, a power failure ended any further experiments. It remained in orbit nearly 17 years, until it reentered the Earth's atmosphere on 11 Feb 1992
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