SOCRATES

Spacecraft nº:

Japanese spacecraft nº: 196

Launch data: Designation  39768 / 14029C Launch date  24 May 2014 - 03:05 UT Launch site  Tanegashima, YLP-1 Launch vehicle  H-2A-202 Mission  Earth observation Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  623 x 634 km Eccentricity   Inclination   97.9° Period  97.1 min

Spacecraft data: Prime manufacturer  AES Platform   Operator  NICT Mass at launch  48 kg Dry Mass   kg Basic shape  cube Dimension (m)   Equipment  SOTA Solar array  2 deployable fixed solar arrays, solar cells Stabilization  three axis stabilized Propulsion  Hydrogen peroxide thrusters DC power   Design lifetime

The secondary payloads integrated on the adapter ring of the second stage (image credit: JAXA)

Description:

• SOCRATES (Space Optical Communications Research Advanced Technology Satellite) is a microsatellite developed by NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology), Koganei, Tokyo, Japan. The mission is to demonstrate and validate the operation of SOTA (Small Optical Transponder), a laser communication system in space for microsatellites and eventually in nanosatellites.
• SOCRATES is built AES (Advanced Engineering Services Co.,Ltd.) and uses the small satellite standard bus with two deployable solar arrays. The satellite is three axis stabilized.

Mission details:

• SOCRATES for the Japanese comms research lab NICT, with a laser communications experiment, was launched on May 24, 2014.

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