M-Cubed
Mission type | Technology/Education |
---|---|
Operator | University of Michigan |
COSPAR ID | 2011-061F ![]() |
SATCAT no. | 37855 |
Mission duration | 12 years, 9 months and 22 days (elapsed) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | CubeSat |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 28 October 2011 (2011-10-28) |
Rocket | Delta II 7920-10C |
Launch site | Vandenberg, SLC-2W |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
Regime | Low Earth orbit |
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 | 7 July 2014[1] |
M-Cubed is a miniaturized satellite built by students at the University of Michigan in a joint project run by the Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It is an example of the popular CubeSat design for amateur satellites. It was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 28 October 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, Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE), 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 the 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] 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 6 December 2013.[5]
See also
References
- ^ "NORAD Catalog Number 37855". Retrieved July 9, 2014.
- ^ a b c d "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. p. 173. Bibcode:2013aero.confE.173S. doi:10.1109/AERO.2013.6497127. ISBN 978-1-4673-1813-6. S2CID 18625435.
- ^ a b "MCubed-2". National Space Flight Data Center. August 16, 2013. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "MCubed-2". eoPortal. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
External links
- Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 9 October 2016)
- AMSAT - Satellite Detail - MCubed
- v
- t
- e
- Kosmos 2470
- USA-225
- Johannes Kepler ATV
- STS-133 (Leonardo)
- Kosmos 2471
- Glory, Explorer-1 [Prime], KySat-1, Hermes
- USA-226
- USA-227
- Shijian XI-03
- STS-135 (Raffaello, PSSC-2)
- Tianlian I-02
- Globalstar M083, Globalstar M088, Globalstar M091, Globalstar M085, Globalstar M081, Globalstar M089
- GSAT-12
- SES-3, KazSat-2
- USA-232
- Spektr-R
- Compass-IGSO4
- Shijian XI-02
- Juno
- Astra 1N, BSAT-3c/JCSAT-110R
- Paksat-1R
- Hai Yang 2A
- Sich 2, NigeriaSat-2, NigeriaSat-X, RASAT, EduSAT, AprizeSat-5, AprizeSat-6, BPA-2
- Ekspress-AM4
- Shijian XI-04
- Progress M-12M
- GRAIL-A , GRAIL-B
- Zhongxing-1A
- Kosmos 2473
- Arabsat 5C, SES-2
- IGS Optical 4
- Atlantic Bird 7
- TacSat-4
- Tiangong-1
- QuetzSat 1
- Kosmos 2475 , Kosmos 2476 , Kosmos 2477
- Fobos-Grunt , Yinghuo-1
- Yaogan 12 , Tian Xun-1
- Soyuz TMA-22
- Shiyan Weixing 4 , Chuang Xin 1C
- AsiaSat 7
- Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)
- Kosmos 2478
- Yaogan 13
- Compass-IGSO5
- Amos-5, Luch 5A
- IGS Radar 3
- Pléiades-HR 1A, SSOT, ELISA 1, ELISA 2, ELISA 3, ELISA 4
- NigComSat-1R
- Soyuz TMA-03M
- Ziyuan-1C
- Meridian 5
- Globalstar M080, Globalstar M082, Globalstar M084, Globalstar M086, Globalstar M090, Globalstar M092
Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).