U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Payloads Launch on SpaceX Rocket to Study Space Weather and Spacecraft PropulsionBy Mary Estacion, Strategic Communications, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory | June 25, 2019WASHINGTON – U.S. Naval Research Laboratory researchers designed and built two science payloads that went up with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Heavy rocket launch on June 25.The Small Wind and Temperature Spectrometer (SWATS) will help researchers understand the dynamics of the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere, while the Tether Electrodynamic Propulsion CubeSat Experiment (TEPCE) will investigate orbital energy created by the Earth’s magnetic field that could propel future spacecraft.Operating in low Earth orbit, SWATS will monitor atmospheric densities, winds and temperatures while traveling in an elliptical orbit at altitudes between 350 and 700 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. The payload rides aboard NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM).“It’s important to have in situ [direct] measurements, as well as remote sensing measurements,” said Andy Nicholas, lead investigator for SWATS. “[Those measurements will] inform the models and improve predictions for the ionosphere.”Navy researchers are studying the ionosphere because of its effects on over-the-horizon radar and other long-range communications technologies.The other NRL passenger on this SpaceX mission, TEPCE is a miniaturized satellite, known as a CubeSat. Once in space, it will divide into two objects connected by a 1-kilometer-long tether. The system will collect electrons from the Earth’s space environment and transmit the electrons from one object to the other.Its designers expect the Earth’s magnetic field to exert a force on the electrons in the tether, producing a velocity change that will affect both the magnitude and direction of the spacecraft.“What this means is a possible new propulsion capability for spacecraft,” said Shannon Coffey, TEPCE’s principal investigator. “Which may decrease the amount of propellant that we have to use.”In all, this SpaceX launch carried more than two dozen science payloads into orbit.
View from the fairing during the STP-2 mission; when the fairing returns to Earth, friction heats up particles in the atmosphere, which appear bright blue in the video
Not identified yet: Armadillo, Bricsat 2, PSat 2, E-TBEx A/B, FalconSat-7, LEO, StangSat, Prometheus, Tepce 1/2, GPIM
From #LightSail2, with love <3
https://twitter.com/exploreplanets/status/1148685568038957058
Mission officials today cleared the spacecraft for a possible sail deployment attempt on Tuesday, 23 July 2019, during a ground station pass that starts at roughly 11:22 PDT (18:22 UTC). A backup pass is available the following orbit starting at 13:07 PDT (20:07 UTC). These times may change slightly as new orbit predictions become available.
#LightSail2 ground pass 1 complete. All critical pre-sail deployment tasks successful, including TLE upload. Spacecraft is currently go for solar sail deployment during the next pass, which begins at about 11:40 PDT (18:40 PDT).
