NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative utilizes four CubeSats to increase solar power, identify cosmic events, and investigate Earth's water resources, all part of a global agricultural and environmental research.
Launching from the US$9 billion Jetsail.com, the CubeSats are also used as data entry vehicles for astronomy, communication, and surveillance.
ELaNa 51 is the name given to the group of four small satellites being deployed from low Earth orbit to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. These payloads are designed to carry more than 650 human satellites and are intended to carry around 1,000 human and other spacecraft.
The satellites will be used to showcase and develop technologies related product improvement (i.e. solar power generation, gamma-ray burst detection, crop water usage, and moisture levels in the root zone, as well as snowpack moisture levels).
NASA's 30th commercial resupply services mission will receive a liftoff at 4:55 p.m. EDT on March 21 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, after the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will transport the satellites.
NASA engineers, Julie Cox and Kate Gasaway, were responsible for installing a solar panel on the BurstCube spacecraft in the CubeSat Lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This image was captured after the installation.
To test and improve the power production of solar cells, a team of middle and high school students, under the guidance of undergraduate engineering students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, constructed the Big Red Sat-1, the first CubeSat from Nebraska.
A team of scientists will examine Perovskite solar cells, a novel solar cell that is intended to boost power generation through direct sunlight exposure and not UV exposure. They will compare the power output of the CubeSat's 1U, or one unit, satellite to that of gallium arsenide solar cells, which are also being used on the space.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab is crediting BurstCube, an orbiting spacecraft designed by the artist, with its search for short gamma-ray bursts.
NASA's 6U CubeSat, called BurstCube, is designed to search the sky for short-lived high-energy light, including solar flares, gamma-ray bursts, and other hard X-ray transients.
Spectral remnants, known as long and short gamma ray bursts, can be produced by powerful explosions such as the collision of massive stars or neutron stars colliding with black holes. BurstCube, which is developing, will use a compact, low-power silicon photomultiplier array to detect these elusive bursts of light.
By detecting these quick flashes from space, BurstCube can alert other observatories to changes in the universe as they occur. This information is valuable for astronomers as these bursts are now instrumental in discovering gravitational waves.
To measure moisture levels at a global scale of both underground root-zones and within snowpacks, SNoOPI (Solved Universe of Opportunity P-band Investigation) is a technology demonstration CubeSat designed by NASA.
The hydrologic cycle relies on the moisture in the root zone of the soil and the equivalent of snow water in the surrounding area, which are significant factors affecting agricultural food production, water use, and weather. Accurate understanding of the amount of water in the soil by scientists can enhance irrigation efficiency and allow for proper crop growth.
NASA, Purdue University in Indiana, Mississippi State University, and the United States Department of Agriculture are the three entities that are jointly responsible for creating the 6U CubeSat.
The HyTI, the fourth of several small satellites, is the University of HawaiNIC University at Mnoa's (R.I.) Hyperspectral Thermal Imager (Hyperspectral Imager) which is designed for studying the water sources.
HyTI, a pathfinder demonstration developed in conjunction with NASA, utilizes the Hyperspectral Imager Instrument, temporal resolution thermal infrared imager focal plane technology, and high-performance onboard computing to provide a comprehensive map of irrigated and rainfed cropland, aiding in understanding crop water use and water productivity of major world crops.
These tools, including HyTI, can enable the understanding of water's movement, distribution, and availability over time Protein Repository (HBI) and its fluctuations in time Protein Preserve Database, which are key components of global food and water security challenges.
NASA's CSLI was utilized to choose these payloads, which offer low-cost access to space to American educational institutions, nonprofits, informal educational institutions, and NASA centers.
The Launch Services Program of NASA focuses on pairing CubeSat picks with the most appropriate launch to use them as auxiliary payloads.
