Related papers: CubeSats for Astronomy and Astrophysics
The Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) is a NASA-funded astrophysics mission, devoted to the study of the ultraviolet (UV) time-domain behavior in low-mass stars. Given their abundance and size, low-mass stars are important…
With the advent of the nanosat/cubesat revolution, new opportunities have appeared to develop and launch small ($\sim$\ts 1000 cm$^3$), low-cost ($\sim$\ts US\$ 1M) experiments in space in very short timeframes ($\sim$ 2\ts years). In the…
Support for early career astronomers who are just beginning to explore astronomy research is imperative to increase retention of diverse practitioners in the field. Since 2010, Astrobites has played an instrumental role in engaging members…
A key factor in the economic efficiency of satellites is their availability in orbit. Replacing standardized building blocks, such as empty fuel tanks or outdated electronic modules, could greatly extend the satellites' lifetime. This,…
Space exploration to have the biosignatures of extraterrestrial life on different planets with oceans in our solar system and beyond requires the design and manufacturing of robust and reliable electronic systems that can be used for…
The CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP) project is an Earth-orbiting CubeSat mission designed to measure the linear polarization of solar flares in the hard X-ray band using a Compton scattering polarimeter. CUSP will enable the study of…
The timing-based localization, which utilize the triangulation principle with the different arrival time of gamma-ray photons, with a fleet of Cubesats is a unique and powerful solution for the future all-sky gamma-ray observation, which is…
A quantum positioning system (QPS) is proposed that can provide a user with all four of his space-time coordinates. The user must carry a corner cube reflector, a good clock, and have a two-way classical channel of communication with the…
The climate crisis we are facing calls for significant improvements in our understanding of natural phenomena, with clouds being identified as a dominant source of uncertainty. To this end, the emerging field of 3D computed cloud tomography…
Recent advancements in space science and technologies offer exciting prospects for investigating novel research that is unattainable within terrestrial laboratories. Here we propose the implementation of space-based quantum sensing to…
With advancements in technology, the smaller versions of satellites have gained momentum in the space industry for earth monitoring and communication-based applications. The rise of CanSat technology has significantly impacted the space…
The design, integration, testing, and launch of the first Finnish satellite Aalto-1 is briefly presented in this paper. Aalto-1, a three-unit CubeSat, launched into Sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 500 km, is…
A Drag-Free CubeSat mission has been proposed to demonstrate the feasibility of a Gravitational Reference Sensor (GRS) with an optical readout for a 3 units (3U) spacecraft. A purely drag-free object is defined by the absence of all…
The recent explosive growth of small satellite operations driven primarily from an academic or pedagogical need, has demonstrated the viability of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies in space. They have also leveraged and shown the need…
This article develops a protocol to synchronize clocks on board a network of satellites equipped with quantum resources. We show that, in such a constellation, satellites reinforce each other's sync capabilities, forming a common clock that…
The NASA Great Observatories Maturation Program is a development plan to efficiently and effectively develop large, strategic astrophysics missions. Suborbital rocket and balloon programs have long been a key development tool for enabling…
Context. There is currently a niche for providing high-cadence, high resolution, time-series optical spectroscopy from space, which can be filled by using a low-cost cubesat mission. The Belgian-led ESA CubeSpec mission is specifically…
We present methodology and mission results from orbit determination of Planet Labs nanosatellites and differential-drag control of their relative motion. Orbit determination (OD) is required on Planet Labs satellites to accurately predict…
We introduce the scientific motivations for the development of the Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES) that is now in construction for the Very Large Telescope. The assembled cases span a broad range of contemporary topics…
In this paper we present HighRes: a laboratory demonstration of a 3U CubeSat with a deployable primary mirror that has the potential of achieving high-resolution imaging for Earth Observation. The system is based on a Cassegrain telescope…