CSSWE

Spacecraft n°:

US spacecraft n°:

Launch data: Designation  38761 / 12048D Launch date  13 Sept 2012 - 21:39 UT Launch site  Vandenberg, SLC-3E Launch vehicle  Atlas-5/401 (AV-033) Mission  Research, magnetosphere Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee   km Eccentricity   Inclination   deg Period   min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• CSSWE is a 3U-CubeSat designed and developed by students at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder). The objective of the science mission is to address fundamental questions pertaining to the relationship between solar flares and energetic particles. These questions include the acceleration and loss mechanisms of outer radiation belt electrons. The goal is to measure differential fluxes of relativistic electrons in the energy range of 0.5-2.9 MeV and protons in 10-40 MeV. This project is a collaborative effort between the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (AES) at the University of Colorado, which includes the participation of students, faculty, and professional engineers.
• The science goals of the CSSWE mission are to study:
  • How flare location, magnitude, and frequency relate to the timing, duration, and energy spectrum of SEPs reaching Earth
  • How the energy spectrum of radiation belt electrons evolve and how this evolution relates to the acceleration mechanism.
• To accomplish these goals CSSWE has a requirement for a minimum of 3 months of science operations based on expected flare and geomagnetic storm frequency. The first month of operations will be utilized for systems stabilization and check out.

Mission details:

• On Sep 13, 2012 United Launch Alliance flew a Lockheed Martin Atlas V 401, serial AV-033, from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The main payload is thought to be a pair of Navy signals intelligence satellites deployed in a 1010 x 1200 km x 63.4 deg orbit after the second Centaur burn.
• The Centaur then made two further burns to 470 x 780 km x 64.7 deg. The Centaur second stage carries the OUTSat secondary payload which ejected 11 small 'cubesats,' for a mixture of US military and university customers.
• The OUTSat structure is the NPSCUl launcher developed by the US Naval Postgraduate School. It contains 8 P-POD cubesat deployers which ejected the individual cubesats, a mixture of 1U (0.1m cube), 2U (0.1 x 0.1 x 0.2m box) and 3U (0.1 x 0.1 x 0.3m box) payloads, as follows:
  

    Pod 1 3U SMDC-ONE 1.2     (US Army Space and Missile Defence Command, Huntsville, Alabama)
                               Comms
    Pod 3 3U Aeneas           (U. Southern California, Los Angeles and Dept. of Homeland Security)
                               Cargo container tracking
    Pod 4 3U CSSWE            (U. Colorado, Boulder)  Colorado Student Space Weather Expt.
                               Radiation belt electrons and protons
    Pod 5 1U CP5              (Cal Poly. State U., San Luis Obispo)
                               Solar sail deorbit technology
          2U CXBN             (Morehead State U., Morehead, Kentucky)
                               Cosmic Hard X-ray background
    Pod 6 3U CINEMA 1         (U Cal. Berkeley)
                               Magentospheric studies
    Pod 7 3U Re               (Lawrence Livermore Natl. Lab, California)
                               Space debris tracking
    Pod 8 3U SMDC-ONE 1.1     (US Army Space and Missile Defence Command, Huntsville, Alabama)
                               Comms
    Pod 2 1U Aerocube 4       (Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, California)
          1U Aerocube 4A      (Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, California)
          1U Aerocube 4B      (Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, California)
  

  
  
• The payloads were ejected in the order Pod 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,2. The OUTSat remained attached to the Centaur.