FAST

USA

Spacecraft n°:

US spacecraft n°:

Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer, also called SMEX 2 or Explorer 70

Launch data:

Designation: 24285 / 96049A
Launch date21 Aug 1996 - 09:47:26 UT
Launch site Va, L-1011, RW30/12
Launch vehicle  Pegasus-XL
MissionGovernment/Scientific: Astrophysics
Elliptical Earth orbit:
Perigee / Apogee 350 x 4164 km
Eccentricity 2,21E-01
Inclination 83 deg
Period 133.1 min


The spacecraft will probe the physical processes that produce auroras and add signifcantly to the understanding of our near-Earth space environment.

Specifications

Prime contractor University of California, Berkeley
Platform 
Operator Mission and Science Operations Center, UC Berkeley/NASA
Mass at launch 191 kg
Payload mass 51 kg
Dimension octogonal
Solar array  
Stabilization spin stabilized, 12 rpm
DC power52 W
Design lifetime 1 yr - still active


Telemetry: 2215.0 MHz (realtime: 4 kbps, playback: 900/1500/2250 kbps)
Command: 2039.65 MHz (realtime: 2 kbps)

Instruments:
Electric Field Experiment: to provide data on plasma density and electron temperature
Magnetic Field Experiment: 2 magnetometers
Time-of-Flight Energy Angle Mass Spectrograph (TEAMS)
Electrostatic Analyzers (ESA): measurements from 3 eV to 30 KeV
Ref: #7, #15, #27, #226 - update: 03.11.10