Recently Cubesats have attracted a considerable amount of attention as a
Spaceborne platformamong agencies interested in executing a short
duration mission mission. The Cubesats are standardcomponents available
off-the-shelf, and are relatively simple platform in the sense, that
they offerless overall control over the device. Nonetheless, a number of
scientific and engineering objectives have been achieved using
Cubesats,e.g. Ionospheric ELF measurements, and Reaction Wheel tests.
Cubesats are cubic platforms measuring 10cm x 10cm x 10cm, that is 1
liter. The maximum mass is1.33 kg, per unit. At the maximum 3 units can
be used together. Standard power and communication kits come together
with cubesats.
Mission Proposal: Aerosol Monitoring Aerosols are particulate matter in
the atmosphere, which are known to be influential on climate. Aerosols
are also to be monitored to observe the spread of natural calamities
such as Nuclear Disasters and Volcanic Disasters. The Present A-train
(the remote sensing satellite constellation that passes the equator at
local timeafternoon, figure 1) monitors atmospheric aerosol using
backscattered solar radiation, and spectrometric techniques.
Nonetheless, the monitoring process is not exclusively dedicated to
aerosols, even though aerosolsare an important player in the Earth
System. In fact the first exclusive mission after aerosols was the GLORY
mission from NASA, which did not quite succeed. There exists agencies,
who are interested in aerosol information. Climate studies recently have
inclined towards investigation of aerosol processes, for example, see
\[2\], \[3\] and \[5\]. Disastermitigation agencies also are interested
in aerosol data, for example see \[4\], \[6\]Mission Operation:
Photographic systems - The proposed method for aerosol monitoring
depends on photographic techniques. A syntheticaperture stereo camera
will photograph the atmosphere using different (commercially available)
bandpass filters. Another camera will be fitted with a spectrometer
polarimeter assembly. Multiband monitoring of the following parameters
will be of interest:
1. Spectral Pattern of the backscatter, analyzed in spectrometer assembly the includingpower at different wavelengths;
2. Atmospheric interference and backscatter patterns;
3. Polarization of backscatter;
4. Photometric descriptions of aerosol concentration patterns;
Mission Extension: Upper atmospheric Aerosol - The pilot mission is
engaged in monitoring the lower atmospheric aerosols (up to tropopause.
Should the Pilot mission is executed successfully, a possible extension
may be achieved with new devices inserted in orbit to monitor upper
atmospheric aerosols.
Further, a LIDAR based observation of aerosol dispersion may be
realized.Mission Goals: Science Return - The mission should return the
following science objectives successfully:
1. Identification of spectral signature of different aerosol species, at different altitudes,incidence angle, and environment (temperature etc);
2. Identification of patterns in the aerosol formations;
3. Identification of energy redistribution pattern at the presence of aerosols, anddifferentiations of patterns with respect to different aerosol species, and environmentalconditions; Mission Goals: Technical Goals - The technical goals include improvisation of sampling and monitoring techniques. The ones that are of primary interest are:
1. Noise filtration of aerosol monitoring data;
2. Optimal sampling point identification;
Mission Goals: Engineering Goals
1. Calibration of instruments;
2. Identifying the orbital maneuvers before launch;
3. Identifying necessary subsystems;
4. Designing and constructing the mission Control;
5. Construction of a Cubesat by integrating all subsystems necessary;
6. Launch of the said Cubesat;
7. Confirmed Orbital Operation of the said Cubesat for at least 6 months;
Mission Goals: Commercial Goals
1. Generation of data utilizable in the context of use by third parties;
2. Filtering of the data to meet the industry standards;
3. Generation of secondary data, to meet the requirement of secondary third parties;
Conclusion - The pilot mission focuses on simplicity and feasibility of
the mission, while making sure that somescientific data is returned –
such that the mission is not just a demonstrator. Only one
scientificpayload is planned.Given the pilot mission is successful, an
extension is possible, using more satellites, and moresophisticated
systems.Given the pilot mission is approved, and enough interest is
generated, immediately shall a MissionConcept Review be released,
wherein the science goals will be clearly defined. Immediately afterthe
MCR will follow a System Requirement Review, wherein the mission
requirements such as,data download rate, orbital height, etc will be
More Infos can be found at [1](https://events.ccc.de/camp/2011/wiki/CubeSat_Workshop) and some previous test launch[2](http://universeexplorer.cwahi.net/project-nepa/#intro)
