{"id":65870,"date":"2018-01-22T14:44:04","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T18:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=65870"},"modified":"2023-05-08T10:45:37","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T14:45:37","slug":"nasa-to-launch-bu-student-built-microsatellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2018\/01\/22\/nasa-to-launch-bu-student-built-microsatellites\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA to Launch BU Student-Built Microsatellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>ANDESITE will get close-up look at the aurora<\/h2>\n<p><span>By Kate Becker,\u00a0<\/span><em>BU Today<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"responsive-video responsive-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"THIS is a Satellite: The ANDESITE cube satellite at Boston University\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZRHqU-55NVo?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<figure style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/wide_15173932331_a60d465fb4_b_greenland_travel-636x325.jpg\" alt=\"When charged particles from the sun hit the Earth\u2019s magnetic field, they can generate the dancing lights of the aurora. The ANDESITE mission will help reveal how the energy that creates the aurora passes from the sun into Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Photo courtesy of Greenland Travel. \" width=\"636\" height=\"325\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-65884\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/wide_15173932331_a60d465fb4_b_greenland_travel-636x325.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/wide_15173932331_a60d465fb4_b_greenland_travel-768x393.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/wide_15173932331_a60d465fb4_b_greenland_travel-992x509.jpg 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/wide_15173932331_a60d465fb4_b_greenland_travel.jpg 995w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When charged particles from the sun hit the Earth\u2019s magnetic field, they can generate the dancing lights of the aurora. The ANDESITE mission will help reveal how the energy that creates the aurora passes from the sun into Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Photo courtesy of Greenland Travel. Video by Joe Chan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If MacGyver were on a mission to study the aurora, this is the satellite he might build: a grid of scrap solar cells pasted onto an iPad-size green rectangle of circuit board, a six-inch cut of stainless steel tape measure soldered in one corner as a makeshift antenna, and inside, a suite of smartphone-class sensors that anyone can buy on the internet. But despite its crude looks, this microsatellite, a piece of a BU student-built experiment called<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/busat\/missions\/andesite\/\">ANDESITE<\/a>, is actually on the leading edge of a new trend: studying space using wireless networks, or swarms, of inexpensive, lightweight minisatellites that are cheap to build and cheap to launch.<\/p>\n<p>ANDESITE is<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/2015\/bu-satellite-team-nasa\/\">on track<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>to launch some time after March 1, 2018, as part of a satellite rideshare coordinated by NASA\u2019s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/smallsats\/elana\/index.html\">ELaNa<\/a>) Project. It\u2019s a teaching mission first: roughly 15 College of Engineering students, including project manager J. Brent Parham (ENG\u201918) and project engineer Maria Kromis (ENG\u201917), are working on the project at any given time, gaining the kind of hands-on satellite-building experience that aspiring space engineers usually have to wait years for.<\/p>\n<p><span>But ANDESITE is not just for practice. It will be examining how charged particles spilling out from the sun buffet the Earth\u2019s magnetic field. This stream of particles, called the solar wind, can be a gentle breeze or a sudden, potentially hazardous gust that makes the Earth\u2019s magnetic field flap like a wind sock in a hurricane.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65881\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65881\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/995x664_mini-sat-636x424.jpg\" alt=\"Finished minisatellites are ready to be inserted into the mothership. Photo by Jonathan Brent Parham\" width=\"636\" height=\"424\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-65881\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/995x664_mini-sat-636x424.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/995x664_mini-sat-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/995x664_mini-sat.jpg 995w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65881\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Finished minisatellites are ready to be inserted into the mothership. Photo by Jonathan Brent Parham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt was very important for us to have a true science mission. When it\u2019s launched into space, we\u2019re doing fundamentally new research,\u201d says<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/profile\/brian-walsh-ph-d\/\">Brian Walsh<\/a>\u00a0(GRS\u201909,\u201912), an ENG assistant professor of mechanical engineering, who heads up the project with<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/heaviside.bu.edu\/\">Joshua Semeter<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>(ENG\u201992,\u201997), an ENG professor of electrical and computer engineering.<\/p>\n<p>When solar wind particles hit the Earth\u2019s magnetic field, they cram together and funnel through lanes marked off by the Earth\u2019s magnetic field lines, like commuters squeezing through a bank of subway turnstiles. Then they drop down on the atmosphere, generating electrical currents that make the glowing, multicolored aurora\u2014but they can also wreak havoc on radio communications and electrical systems below. By measuring the strength and direction of the magnetic field some 500 kilometers above Earth, ANDESITE will help reveal how those electrical currents move energy into the atmosphere, which could help researchers provide better predictions about potentially dangerous solar storms and understand how the aurora gets its peculiar ripples and whirls.<\/p>\n<p>Until now, space physicists have studied these questions using single, high-precision spacecraft. But solo satellites have limitations, even when they are outfitted with top-of-the-line sensors, says Parham, who presented a mission update at the<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.agu.org\/\">American Geophysical Union\u2019s Fall Meeting<\/a>, on December 13, 2017.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65883\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65883\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/banner_hairnet-636x419.jpg\" alt=\"David Einhorn (ENG\u201917) (right) and Maria Kromis (ENG\u201917) inspect ANDESITE. Photo courtesy of Air Force Research Laboratory\" width=\"636\" height=\"419\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-65883\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/banner_hairnet-636x419.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/banner_hairnet-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/banner_hairnet-992x655.jpg 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/banner_hairnet.jpg 995w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65883\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Einhorn (ENG\u201917) (right) and Maria Kromis (ENG\u201917) inspect ANDESITE. Photo courtesy of Air Force Research Laboratory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re flying one sensor through something really fast on a satellite, you\u2019re just getting a time series of data,\u201d says Parham. But because the aurora is always changing, it\u2019s impossible to tell the difference between changes over time and changes over space: they are all mixed up together.<\/p>\n<p>The satellites will take positions a few kilometers apart, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. Combining readings from all eight spacecraft, space physicists will be able to piece together a full picture of the aurora, even without exquisitely sensitive\u2014and exquisitely expensive\u2014parts. \u201cWe don\u2019t need a finely tuned Ferrari: we advance our science with eight Camrys,\u201d says Walsh.<\/p>\n<p>Inside each of ANDESITE\u2019s eight circuit-board satellites is a smart compass, made up of a magnetometer that reads out the strength of the magnetic field in three directions, plus a GPS device and a gyroscope, which tell where the satellite is and what way it\u2019s pointed. Also onboard: a so-called baby microprocessor, popular with electronics hobbyists, a battery to store up energy from the solar cells, and the tape-measure antenna, which will send data back to the mothership. The total cost of parts for one minisatellite: about $500.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65882\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65882\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/995x681_17-1969-ROBOTS-028-636x435.jpg\" alt=\"A BU group led by Brian Michael Walsh (ENG\u201910) (front, right) is developing a wireless network (or swarm) of minispacecraft, which contain magnetometers to measure the fine-scale structure of the Birkeland currents that create the Northern Lights. Photo by Cydney Scott\" width=\"636\" height=\"435\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-65882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/995x681_17-1969-ROBOTS-028-636x435.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/995x681_17-1969-ROBOTS-028-768x526.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2018\/01\/995x681_17-1969-ROBOTS-028.jpg 995w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65882\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A BU group led by Brian Michael Walsh (ENG\u201910) (front, right) is developing a wireless network (or swarm) of minispacecraft, which contain magnetometers to measure the fine-scale structure of the Birkeland currents that create the Northern Lights. Photo by Cydney Scott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The deployer also slashes the cost of launch to pennies on the dollar: the face value of a rideshare ticket for a mission like ANDESITE is about $200,000, compared to at least $20 million to fly solo, Parham says. (ANDESITE\u2019s spot is sponsored by NASA\u2019s ELaNa program.)<\/p>\n<p>These pocket-sized satellites are not about to replace the full-sized, bespoke flagships for every application, but Parham says he\u2019s eager for ANDESITE to help prove that little satellites can do big science. \u201cThere\u2019s something to be done with the cheap stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cYou just have to realize that it\u2019s not either\/or.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/2018\/nasa-to-launch-bu-student-built-microsatellites\"><em>BU Today<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If MacGyver were on a mission to study the aurora, this is the satellite he might build: a grid of scrap solar cells pasted onto an iPad-size green rectangle of circuit board, a six-inch cut of stainless steel tape measure soldered in one corner as a makeshift antenna, and inside, a suite of smartphone-class sensors that anyone can buy on the internet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13786,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,385,240,907],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13786"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139662,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65870\/revisions\/139662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}