The mission has moved a step closer to that milestone after the full suite of small satellites, or SmallSats, completed a rigorous test campaign at Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) in Logan, Utah, where they were built. Engineers designed the tests to confirm that the spacecraft can survive the harsh conditions of launch and operate as intended during their one-year prime mission studying solar radio bursts.
The SunRISE constellation will investigate radio emissions generated by solar energetic particle events originating in the Sun's corona. These events can, in extreme cases, expose astronauts and spacecraft to intense radiation, and the radio waves they produce carry information about how and where the particles are accelerated. By tracking these radio bursts, SunRISE will help scientists better understand and ultimately mitigate the effects of hazardous space weather.
To prepare the spacecraft for this task, SDL engineers first subjected each SmallSat to thermal vacuum testing that mimicked the vacuum and temperature extremes it will encounter in orbit. They then performed electromagnetic compatibility testing to verify that onboard electronics and subsystems will not interfere with the mission's sensitive radio science instruments when operating together in the confined volume of each spacecraft.
The final major hurdle was vibration testing, which replicated the mechanical loads the SmallSats will experience during ascent on their specific launch vehicle. The team configured the tests using a vibration profile tailored to the United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket and the overall rideshare payload stack that will carry SunRISE into space from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
"Each spacecraft was loaded with propellant to match launch mass and subjected to vibration testing in all three axes. The objective was to make the simulated vibrations as true to the conditions of launch as possible," said Jim Lux, SunRISE project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "Pre- and post-test functional checks were performed, and all six spacecraft aced them."
After launch, the SunRISE SmallSats will be deployed to an orbit slightly above geosynchronous altitude, at roughly 22,000 miles, or about 35,000 kilometers, above Earth. Once on station, each spacecraft will extend four telescoping antenna booms, each roughly 10 feet, or about 2.5 meters, long, forming an X-shaped configuration optimized for low-frequency radio observations.
Flying in a loose formation up to 10 miles, or about 16 kilometers, apart, the six spacecraft together will synthesize the resolving power of a single large radio telescope. Using interferometry techniques and communications relayed via NASA's Deep Space Network, scientists will combine the individual measurements into detailed maps of solar radio bursts and the associated magnetic field structures stretching from the outer corona into interplanetary space.
"Solar radio bursts are triggered after vast quantities of energy stored in the Sun's magnetic field accelerate solar particles to high speeds," said Sue Lepri, SunRISE principal investigator at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "Tracking these events will not only help space agencies mitigate their damaging effects on astronauts and spacecraft but will also add new science to our growing knowledge base of how space weather is generated and propagates throughout the solar system."
By providing continuous, dedicated observations of low-frequency radio emissions from the Sun, SunRISE will complement measurements from other NASA heliophysics missions. These include the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, Parker Solar Probe, and Solar Orbiter, an international cooperative mission between ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA that is exploring the Sun and inner heliosphere from different vantage points.
SunRISE is a Mission of Opportunity under the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at agency headquarters in Washington and is part of the Explorers Program managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor leads the science investigation and operates the science operations center, while NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the project and operates the mission operations center.
The Space Dynamics Laboratory built the SunRISE spacecraft and conducted the environmental test campaign that has now cleared them for integration with their launch vehicle rideshare system. With testing complete and operations centers in place, the mission team is preparing for launch and the start of a new window on solar radio activity and the dynamics of space weather.
Related Links
SunRISE at NASA
Microsat News and Nanosat News at SpaceMart.com
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