ALICE

Spacecraft nº:

US spacecraft nº:

Launch data: Designation  39467 / 13072F Launch date  06 Dec 2013 - 07:14 UT Launch site  Va, SLC-3E Launch vehicle  Atlas-5/501 Mission  Techology Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee   km Eccentricity   Inclination   ° Period   min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• The Air Force Institute of Technology's ALICE (AFIT LEO iMESA CNT Experiment) is a nanosatellite in NRO's Colony-1 program to test technologies in orbit. NRO purchased 12 3-unit CubeSat busses with deployable solar panels and three-axis control from Pumpkin Inc. The NRO distributed the structures to other Defense Department or federal agency partners and universities to develop and integrate a variety of payloads.
• The satellite carries the iMESA (Integrated Miniaturized Electrostatic Analyzer) and the CNT (Carbon Nano-Tube) experiments.
• Georgia Tech manufactured the carbon nanotube array and AFIT built the payload and assembled and tested the satellite. Performance of the carbon nanotube array will be done using custom built integrated miniaturized electrostatic analyzer (iMESA) sensors, based on designs provided by the U.S. Air Force Academy. The ALICE satellite is a 3U cubesat supplied by the National Reconnaissance Office Colony CubeSat program.

Mission details:

• The Atlas-5 was launched from Vandenberg on Dec 6, 2013 at 07:14 UT.
• Attached to AV-042 was GEMSAT, the second NPSCuL cubesat launcher, which ejected 12 cubesats between around 1022 and 1038 UTC.
  • FIREBIRD A and B, two 1.5U cubesats from the Montana Space Grant Consortium to study electron microbursts in the magnetosphere.
  • CUNYSAT, a 1U from the City University of New York's Medgar Evers College, with a GPS ionospheric receiver.
  • MCUBED-2, 1 1U from the University of Michigan with technology experiments. including a low resolution imager.
  • IPEX-CP8, a 1U built by Cal Poly to test systems and algorithms for JPL.
  • ALICE, a 1U from the Air Force Institute of Technology carrying technology experiments.
  • SMDC-ONE C and D (Charlie and David), 3U communications satellites for the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command.
  • Aerocube 5a and 5b, 1.5U technology cubesats for the Aerospace Corporation.
  • SNAP, a 3U cubesat for the SMDC Nanosatellite Program, with an unknown mission.
  • Tacsat-6, a 3U cubesat for SMDC with an unknown mission, probably tactical communications or imaging.

External links:

• EOportal.org Satellite description
• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time satellite tracking