FIREBIRD A

Spacecraft nº:

US spacecraft nº:

Launch data: Designation  39463 / 13072B Launch date  06 Dec 2013 - 07:14 UT Launch site  Va, SLC-3E Launch vehicle  Atlas-5/501 (AV-042) Mission  Technology, Science Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee   km Eccentricity   Inclination   ° Period   min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• The FIREBIRD (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst, Intensity, Range, and Dynamics) mission is a targeted, goal-directed, space weather Cubesat mission to resolve the spatial scale size and energy dependence of electron microbursts in the Van Allen radiation belts. Relativistic electron microbursts appear as short durations of intense electron precipitation measured by particle detectors on low altitude spacecraft, seen when their orbits cross magnetic field lines which thread the outer radiation belt. Previous spacecraft missions (e.g., SAMPEX) have quantified important aspects of microburst properties (e.g., occurrence probabilities), however, some crucial properties (i.e., spatial scale) remain elusive owing to the space-time ambiguity inherent to single spacecraft missions. While microbursts are thought to be a significant loss mechanism for relativistic electrons, they remain poorly understood, thus rendering space weather models of Earth’s radiation belts incomplete. FIREBIRD’s unique two-point, focused observations at low altitudes, that fully exploit the capabilities of the Cubesat platform, will answer three fundamental scientific questions with space weather implications:
  • What is the spatial scale size of an individual microburst?
  • What is the energy dependence of an individual microburst?
  • How much total electron loss from the radiation belts do microbursts produce globally?

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.