Abstract
Nanosatellites are spacecraft in the mass range between 1 and 10 kg providing a fast and low-cost possibility to test new technology in Space and gain flight heritage. The first Austrian nanosatellite TUGSAT-1/BRITE-Austria, successfully launched in 2013, and a follow-up ESA mission are described in this paper.
Zusammenfassung
Nanosatelliten sind Weltraumobjekte mit einer Masse zwischen 1 und 10 kg. Sie bieten eine rasche und kostengünstige Möglichkeit, neue Technologien im Weltraum zu erproben und Flugerfahrung zu sammeln. Der erste österreichische Satellit TUGSAT-1/BRITE-Austria, der erfolgreich 2013 gestartet wurde, und eine Nachfolgemission der ESA werden in diesem Artikel beschrieben.
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References
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Acknowledgements
The Authors wish to thank Prof. Werner Weiss and Dr. Rainer Kuschnig (Institute of Astrophysics of the University of Vienna), Dr. Rob Zee and Mr. Cordell Grant (Spaceflight Lab of the University of Toronto) for their contributions. Thanks are due to all colleagues at the Institute of Communication Networks and Satellite Communications (TU Graz), in particular Mr. Robert Finsterbusch, Mr. Andreas Merdonig and Mr. Siegfried Stöllner) having contributed to the BRITE success. The contributions by Dr. Michael Bergmann and Mr. Eral Türkyilmaz in the OPS-SAT Phase A/B1 study shall be explicitly acknowledged.
BRITE-Austria/TUGSAT-1 is funded by the Austrian Aeronautics and Space Agency in the framework of the Austrian Space and Applications Programme (ASAP), an impulse programme by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology. The authors wish to thank Mr. Harald Posch (Head of the Agency), Dr. Andrè Peter and Mr. Ludwig Hofer for the continuing support.
The authors thank Mr. David Evans (ESA/ESOC) for the excellent cooperation in the OPS-SAT Phase A/B1 study.
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Koudelka, O., Unterberger, M. & Romano, P. Nanosatellites—the BRITE and OPS-SAT missions. Elektrotech. Inftech. 131, 178–187 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00502-014-0219-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00502-014-0219-8