NanoAvionics Companions with LANL on Pioneering ESRA Area Mission
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 01, 2024
Kongsberg NanoAvionics US, a frontrunner in smallsat mission integration, has entered into a brand new partnership with Los Alamos Nationwide Laboratory (LANL), a premier U.S. science and know-how establishment, for the event of a CubeSat mission aimed toward enhancing our understanding of area radiation.
The mission, designated the Experiment for Area Radiation Evaluation (ESRA), will make use of a 12U CubeSat platform-approximately the scale of a microwave oven-to perform its goals. This spacecraft is tasked with internet hosting superior charged particle sensors and important flight subsystems as a part of a broader initiative to validate and display next-generation area applied sciences.
Set to be launched right into a geosynchronous switch orbit (GTO), ESRA represents a groundbreaking effort within the examine of the Earth’s dynamic radiation belts. This mission marks a big first, as no CubeSat has beforehand been utilized to watch the energetic charged particles inside these belts during times of photo voltaic most.
ESRA will characteristic two major science payloads: a wide-field-of-view plasma spectrometer (WPS) for the measurement of ions starting from ~100 eV to 35 keV and an brisk charged particle (ECP) telescope able to measuring ions from 100 keV to 200 MeV, in addition to electrons between 100 keV to 1 GeV.
Extra elements, together with a compact modular excessive voltage energy provide (HVPS), a payload flight processor (PFP), a flight software program structure, and a distributed processor module (DPM), will assist these devices. The DPM, specifically, will facilitate good sensor capabilities by processing information on the sensor head areas.
Carlos Maldonado, the ESRA principal investigator at LANL, emphasised the importance of collaboration with the industrial sector, highlighting the advantages of leveraging industrial satellites and floor stations for the fast maturation of area applied sciences. This strategy not solely reduces danger, schedule, and value but additionally exemplifies the potential of CubeSats to contribute to scientific discovery and area climate monitoring past low-Earth orbit.
To accommodate the ESRA payloads, NanoAvionics will modify considered one of its 12U modular buses, making certain mechanical and part compatibility. The mission can be managed utilizing NanoAvionics’ mission management software program, which is designed to function a number of satellite tv for pc missions and is suitable with main industrial floor station networks worldwide.
Zilvinas Kvedaravicius, CEO of Kongsberg NanoAvionics, expressed delight within the firm’s collaboration with LANL, significantly following the profitable partnership on the 12U MAMBO satellite tv for pc. The ESRA mission, he famous, just isn’t solely a testomony to the energy of this partnership but additionally a pioneering enterprise that showcases NanoAvionics’ dedication to advancing area exploration.
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Microsat Information and Nanosat Information at SpaceMart.com