Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer CubeSat

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MinXSS
CU/LASP
COSPAR ID1998-067HU Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.41474U
Websitelasp.colorado.edu/home/minxss
Mission durationFlight model 1: 6 months (planned), 11.66 months (actual)
Flight model 2: 5 years (planned)
8 years (elasped)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type3U
CU/LASP
Launch mass3.5163 kg
Dry mass3.5163 kg
PowerConsumes:
8.0 W (science mode)
5.3 W (safe mode)
2.8 W (phoenix mode)
Max generation: 19 W
Start of mission
Launch dateDecember 6, 2015, 08:44:57 (2015-12-06UTC08:44:57Z) UTC
RocketAtlas V 401
Launch siteKennedy Space Center
ContractorUnited Launch Alliance
Entered service2016 May 16
End of mission
Last contact2017-05-06 02:37:26 UTC
Decay date2017 May 6
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Perigee altitude402 kilometers (250 mi)
Apogee altitude402 kilometers (250 mi)
Inclination51.65 degrees
Period92.69 minutes
EpochJuly 4, 2016[1]
Instruments
Modified Amptek X123 silicon drift detector
Sun Position Sensor (SPS), X-ray Photometer (XP)
 

The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS)

systems engineer
) was Dr. James Paul Mason, who has since become a Co-I for the second flight model of MinXSS.

MinXSS launched on 2015 December 6 to the

amateur radio operators around the world.[5][6] Commissioning of the spacecraft was completed on 2016 June 14[7] and observations of solar flares captured nearly continuously since then.[8] The altitude rapidly decayed in the last week of the mission as atmospheric drag increased exponentially with altitude. The last contact from MinXSS came on 2017-05-06 at 02:37:26 UTC from a HAM operator in Australia. At that time, some temperatures on the spacecraft were already in excess of 100 °C. (One temperature of >300 °C indicated that the solar panel had disconnected, suggesting this contact was only moments before disintegration.)[9] Science data spanning the entire mission are publicly available.[10]

Mission objective

The MinXSS mission is to measure the solar soft

solar flares—and will be used as an input for models of the Earth's upper atmosphere, particularly the ionosphere, thermosphere, and mesosphere
.

Solar soft X-ray measurement history

MinXSS is also the first flight of the Blue Canyon Technologies XACT

attitude determination and control system (ADCS), one of the only commercially available 3-axis ADCSs for CubeSats. It is performing even better than its specification.[14]
This demonstrates that a critical technology for spacecraft has been successfully miniaturized and commercialized.

Science instrument

The primary science instrument onboard MinXSS is a modified Amptek X123 silicon drift detector. The instrument was modified to make it compatible with a space environment.

photoelectrons
reaching the detector.

There are two secondary science instruments: the X-ray Photometer (XP) and the Sun Position Sensor (SPS). XP is a single

arcsec
precision that consists of a planar quad-diode observing visible light, whose purpose is to provide fine knowledge of the solar position with respect to the X123 and XP optical axes to correct for any off-axis signal attenuation.

All instruments were calibrated at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility (SURF III).[12][15]

Pre-flight testing

Despite the loose requirements placed on CubeSats compared to larger spacecraft missions, MinXSS underwent the same rigorous tests that are considered standard in the aerospace industry. The X123 primary science instrument was fully flight-qualified on two sounding rocket flights.[12][16] In addition to subsystem-level and system-level testing at the bench (i.e. in air at room temperature), the system also underwent thermal vacuum chamber cycle testing, thermal balance testing, vibration testing, and end-to-end communications testing.[13] Mission simulations were performed during thermal vacuum cycling and at the bench using a solar array simulator that was autonomously power toggled with realistic orbital insolation and eclipse periods. This ensured that the spacecraft would be power-positive on orbit.

Communications

The spacecraft uses a measuring tape antenna and an AstroDev Li-1 radio. The spacecraft periodically beacons and its signal can be picked up with amateur

ham radio operator equipment. Below are the communications specifications:[17]

Beacons recorded by ham radio operators can be sent to the MinXSS team (in

KISS format) to contribute to overall data capture.[17]

On-Orbit success

The first critical hurdle for any deployed spacecraft is to establish communications with the ground. This was achieved on the first pass over the MinXSS ground station in

arcsecond (1-sigma) pointing, where the specification was for 11 arcseconds.[14]

Follow-on mission (MinXSS-2)

A second MinXSS spacecraft was built in parallel with the first. MinXSS-2 is identical to MinXSS-1 except for:

  • (1) an upgraded version of the X-ray spectrometer, the Amptek X123-FastSDD, vs. the X123-SDD on MinXSS-1;
  • (2) an upgraded version of the BCT XACT, using the current on-market hardware vs. the pre-release version used on MinXSS-1;
  • (3) addition of a circuit for in-flight "hard reset" power cycle;
  • (4) use of the AstroDev Lithium-2 radio vs. the Li-1 used on MinXSS-1; and
  • (5) minor software updates.

MinXSS-2 is planned to deploy from the Spaceflight Industries SSO-A SmallSat Express mission,[22] using a SpaceX Falcon 9.[23] Launch happened on 3 December 2018, and MinXSS2 was deployed to orbit. The MinXSS-2 orbit is polar and Sun-synchronous at 10:30am LTDN, at approximately 575 km altitude, providing an estimated 4-year mission life.

MinXSS-2 was selected for 2 years of funding by NASA under the 2016 Heliophysics Technology and Instrument Development for Science (H-TIDeS) program.

Naval Research Laboratory
, with Dr. Harry Warren added as a co-investigator.

Awards

MinXSS was chosen as the 2016

Logan, UT.[25][26]

Project architecture

The MinXSS project was structured after the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment CubeSat, which established the graduate projects course led by Joseph R. Tanner in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences department at the University of Colorado Boulder. Students in the department have the choice to either complete a Master's thesis or take two semesters of the graduate projects course. Typically, 10-20 students will be involved in each of the concurrent projects. CSSWE and MinXSS heavily leveraged professionals at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. As of 2018 March 8, 40 graduate, 5 undergraduate, and two high school students have worked on the project. Roughly 40 professionals have contributed with varying levels of involvement, from providing feedback at design reviews to writing flight software.

References

  1. ^ Celestrak NORAD CubeSat TLEs
  2. ^ "Achieving Science with CubeSats: Thinking Inside the Box". NationalAcademies.org. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  3. ^ "MinXSS CubeSat Launches to ISS to Study Sun's Soft X-Rays". NASA.gov. 4 December 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  4. ^ "MinXSS CubeSat Deployed From ISS to Study Sun's Soft X-Rays". NASA.gov. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  5. ^ "MinXSS 20:26 UTC 437.345mhz 9K6 Telemetry interval 9 seconds over Japan strong signal". Twitter. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  6. ^ "MINXSS and NODeS 02:57 UTC May 17 2016". YC3BVG BLOG. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  7. ^ "Commissioning complete!". MinXSS Homepage. 14 June 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  8. ^ "MinXSS CubeSat Deployed From ISS to Study Sun's Soft X-Rays". NASA.gov. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  9. ^ "The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) » MinXSS-1 deorbited". lasp.colorado.edu. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  10. ^ "The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) » Data and HAM Radio". lasp.colorado.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  11. doi:10.1029/2005JA011505
    .
  12. ^
    S2CID 118383309
    .
  13. ^
    S2CID 118645968
    .
  14. ^ a b "Perfect Precision For MinXSS CubeSat Supplied By Blue Canyon Technologies—It's All About Attitude". Satnews. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  15. S2CID 119191940
    . Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  16. ^ "NASA-Funded Mission Studies the Sun in Soft X-Rays". NASA.gov. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  17. ^ a b "Data & Ham Radio". MinXSS Homepage. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  18. ^ "First day on orbit a great success!". MinXSS Homepage. 17 May 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  19. ^ Kohler, Susanna (June 2016). "2016 SPD: Day 1". AASNova. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  20. ^ Patel, Neel V. (2 June 2016). "4 Technologies NASA Is Using to Save Us From Death by Sun". Inverse. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  21. Bibcode:2016SPD....47.0306C
    . Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  22. ^ "Spaceflight Prepares Historic Launch of More Than 70 Spacecraft Aboard SpaceX Falcon 9". spaceflight.com. 6 August 2018. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  23. ^ "Spaceflight gears up for dedicated Falcon 9 launch". SpaceNews. 6 August 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  24. ^ "MinXSS-2 has been selected by NASA for funding!". Twitter. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  25. ^ "MinXSS is the @SmallSat mission of the year!Thanks all who voted and made such an exciting and successful mission". Twitter. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  26. ^ "MinXSS wins Mission of the Year at Small Sat Conference". CU Aerospace Engineering Sciences. 16 August 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2016.

External links

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