M-Cubed
| Mission type | Technology/Education |
|---|---|
| Operator | University of Michigan |
| COSPAR ID | 2011-061F |
| SATCAT № | 37855 |
| Website | http://www.umcubed.org |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | CubeSat |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 28 October 2011 |
| Rocket | Delta II 7920-10C |
| Launch site | Vandenberg SLC-2W |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Eccentricity | 0.0215612 |
| Inclination | 101.7178° |
| RAAN | 229.4521° |
| Argument of perigee | 355.7858° |
| Mean anomaly | 120.6105° |
| Mean motion | 14.90323087 orbits/day |
| Epoch | July 7, 2014[1] |
M-Cubed is a miniaturized satellite built by students at the University of Michigan in joint project run by the Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL) and JPL . It is an example of the popular CubeSat design for amateur satellites. It was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on October 28, 2011 atop a Delta II rocket. M-Cubed was launched as a secondary payload to the Suomi NPP satellite, along with AubieSat-1, DICE-1, DICE-2, Explorer-1 Prime, and RAX-2.[2]
M-Cubed, short for Michigan Multipurpose Minisat, was designed as a technology demonstrator for a new FPGA-based image processing system intended for a future NASA mission, Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystem, recommended by the Earth Science Decadal Survey.[3] The mission was also intended to validate the satellite bus design for use in future cubesat missions. The satellite uses a passive magnetorquer for attitude control, consisting of a large permanent magnet that aligns the satellite with the Earth's magnetic field. On-board control is provided by a Taskit Stamp9G20 microcontroller running Real time Linux.[2]
Following launch, MXL was unable to command M-Cubed, and observed anomalies in its transmitted data. MXL concluded that the M-Cubed CubeSat became magnetically conjoined to Explorer-1 Prime, a second CubeSat released at the same time, via both satellites' attitude control magnets.[2][4] This is the first recorded instance of two satellites unintentionally and non-destructively latching together;[5] however, as a result of this incident M-Cubed was unable to complete its mission.[2]
The M-Cubed mission was successfully re-flown as MCubed-2,[6] launched on December 6, 2013.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ "NORAD Catalog Number 37855". Retrieved July 9, 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "M3 / M-Cubed". eoPortal. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
- ↑ "Student-built satellite to prepare NASA instrument". Phys.org. October 26, 2011. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
- ↑ Springmann, J. C.; Bertino-Reibstein, A.; Cutler, J. W. (2013). "Investigation of the on-orbit conjunction between the MCubed and HRBE CubeSats". 2013 IEEE Aerospace Conference. doi:10.1109/AERO.2013.6497127.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "MCubed-2". National Space Flight Data Center. August 16, 2013. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
- ↑ "MCubed-2". eoPortal. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
External links
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