PhoneSat v1a

Spacecraft nr:

US spacecraft nr:

Launch data: Designation  39146 / 13016E Launch date  21 April 2013 - 21:00 UT Launch site  WI, LA-0A Launch vehicle  Antares-110 Mission  Technology Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee   km Eccentricity   Inclination   deg Period   min

Description:

• Three of these were built under a NASA program to design satellites using telephone components. Phonesats 1a, 1b and 2 will demonstrate that a conventional smartphone can be used to perform functions required of a satellite control system. The satellites feature smartphones running the Android operating system and build the centerpiece of the 1-unit Cubesats. The main purpose of the phones is to control all critical functions of the satellite, determine its attitude with the phone's sensors, store data, provide acceleration data and take images of Earth with the 5-Megapixel camera of the phone.
• The two Phonesat 1a and 1b payloads feature the HTC Nexus One. These satellites will mostly perform imaging operations and are not equipped with solar panels. The satellites have a battery life of about one week and can not be commanded from the ground. Each of the two satellites costs about $3500.

Mission details:

• Launch delayed from October, December 2011 and Jan 23, February and April 2012.
• Orbital's Antares rocket's first launch attempt was scrubbed on Apr 17, 2013 and will be rescheduled. If successful its first stage will be the first liquid rocket launch from Wallops to space since 1974.
• Orbital Sciences has conducted a successful test flight of its Antares launch vehicle on April 21, 2013. Antares embarked on its maiden flight at 21:00 UTC, blasting off from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Virginia.
• The vehicle achieved a 237 by 258 Kilometer Orbit with an inclination of 51.61 degrees, showing a considerable error on Apogee and a small error on Perigee.
• At T+10:03, the heavily instrumented 3800-Kilogram Cygnus mass simulator (CMS) was released into its orbit. Shortly before that, the four secondary payloads were released via two Poly Pico Orbital Deployers (P-PODs). The flight ended at T+18:44 after the second stage completed Contamination and Collision Avoidance Maneuvers.
• The CMS also carries ISIPOD deployers which ejected four secondary cubesat payloads before the Stage 2/CMS separation.
  Three of them are 1U cubesats from NASA's Ames Research Center, designed to demonstrate use of a commercial mobile phone as a spacecraft avionics/computer system. This follows a similar attempt by Surrey Satellite with the STRaND-1 satellite lauched on Feb 25, which ran into problems and seems to have stopped transmitting. The three cubesats, preciously, are named Alexander, Graham and Bell. The latter two are Phonesat 1.0 V1A and Phonesat 1.0 V1B, each built around a Nexus One Android-based smartphone.
  Alexander is Phonesat 2.0, based on a Nexus S phone and with an S-band radio, solar panels, GPS receiver, magnetorquers and reaction wheels.