The U.S. subsidiary of Lithuania’s Kongsberg NanoAvionics said that it has received a contract from Los Alamos National Laboratory for a microwave-sized cube satellite to carry the lab’s Experiment for Space Radiation Analysis (ESRA) payload.
Los Alamos has said that ESRA will be “the first Los Alamos space experiment to fly on a commercially produced satellite (as opposed to a satellite produced by a defense contractor or by Los Alamos) and the first to use commercial ground stations to communicate with the satellite.”
“Developers hope that by partnering with these companies, ESRA and other emerging technologies can be launched more often and at a lower cost than historically was possible,” the lab said.
The data from the ESRA plasma and energetic particle sensors are to permit researchers “to better understand how instruments are affected by space weather and evaluate if the sensing technology is suitable for future USNDS [U.S. Nuclear Detonation System] use,” Los Alamos said.
USNDS consists of sensing payloads, satellites, communications, and ground computer systems that constantly monitor and report nuclear detonations. While positioning, navigation, and timing is the primary mission of Lockheed Martin [LMT] GPS satellites, they, like Northrop Grumman [NOC]-built Defense Support Program satellites, also carry the Nuclear Detonation Detection System.
“ESRA will be inserted in geosynchronous transfer orbit and make observations of the Earth’s dynamic radiation belts during the solar maximum,” Kongsberg NanoAvionics and Los Alamos said in a Jan. 31 statement. “To date, no CubeSat has ever provided observations of the energetic charged particles that populate the radiation belts.”
“To fit the ESRA payloads into the host spacecraft, NanoAvionics will configure one of its 12U [120 cubic centimeter] modular buses by making some mechanical and components arrangements before assembling the nanosatellite,” according to the statement. “To operate the satellite while in orbit, ESRA will use NanoAvionics’ mission control software, capable of handling multiple satellite missions and compatible with all major commercial ground station providers with antennas in over 200 locations around the globe. For all other mission-related aspects, NanoAvionics will take an advisory role supporting the team at Los Alamos with launch vehicle integration and on-orbit operations.”