Related & Interesting Projects

Here we list related and interesting projects.
Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS)
During the Goldin era there was a push for UNEX (University Explorers) and the results was the 63-kg CHIPSAT. This satellite was launched on January 12, 2003 and was turned off (due to budgetary reasons) in 2008.

The papers by Janicki (2003) and Taylor (2003) give a perspective of CHIPSat from the design team (SpaceDev) and that by Sholl (2008) gives a nice summary of the lessons learnt from the mission. The principal results of CHIPSat are two papers: Hurwitz et al. (2005) and Sasseen et al. (2006).

Literature on ChipSAT

  1. Opto-mechanical Design of the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) by M. Sholl et al. (2003) [SPIE 4854, pp. 467]
  2. Optics design and performance of the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) by M. Sholl et al. (2003) [SPIE 5164, 63-73]
  3. The CHIPSat Spacecraft Design -- Significant Science on a Low Budget by J. Janicki and J. Wolff (2003), [SPIE]
  4. CHIPS: A NASA UNEX mission by E. Taylor et al. (2003) [SPIE]
  5. CHIPS Microsatellite Optical System: Lessons Learned by M. Sholl et al. (2008), [SPIE 7071, pp. 707104]
  6. Observations of Diffuse EUV emission with CHIPS by Hurwitz, Sasseen and Sirk (2005) [ApJ 623, 911-916]
  7. A Search fo EUV emission from Comets with CHIPS by T. Sasseen et al. (2006), [ApJ 6650, 461-469]
The Project Manager (Sholl) is at SSL, UC Berkeley and the Project Scientist M. Hurwitz is now a teacher in Bay Area.
Microvariability & Oscillations of Stars
The MOST is Canada's first astronomical satellite. Need a volunteer to summarize this mission.
BRITE
BRITE-Constellation is a cluster of "nano-satellites" each costing $1M and aimed at high precision two-color photometry of the brightest stars in the sky (less than 4 mag). The science payload is 30-mm f/2.3 lens coupled to an interline CCD (35-mm format). The FOV is 24 degrees.

BRITE Austria effort encompases several Universities in Austria and Canada aims at building a line of "nano-satellites" (less than 10 kg). The statements from their Mission page should resonate with our dream: "The [TUGSAT-1] satellite makes use of recent advances in miniaturised attitude determination and control systems" and "A major goal is sustainability. TU Graz plans to develop a generic satellite platform which can be used for future low-cost space missions for which interest by the scientific community and industry exists."

Each satellite is equipped with UHF antennas, a slotted S-band antenna, magnetometer, GPS antenna, star tracker and solar panels. The satellite volume is 20 x 20 x 20 cm^3 and the total mass is 6 kg. Attitude determination is provided by the magnetometer. Three reaction wheels and corresponding magnetorquer coils provide for three-axis attitude control and momentum dumping. The attitude control accuracy is better than a degree, attitude stability is one arcminute and attitude determination is 10 arcseconds. Ground stations are modest telescopes at Montreal and Graz.

Monitor e Imageador de Raois-X (MIRAX)
MIRAX is a project of the Brazilian Space agency (and the only known astronomy project). MIRAX aims to observe the Galactic center and bulge regions in the energy range, 2--200 keV (essentially using two sets of coded aperture masks instruments). The total mass is 200 kg and the consumption is 240 W. The estimated cost is pegged at $10M. It seems to be under development since 2002.

Please find a presentation and a paper.

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