COPPER (SLU 01)

COPPER [SLU]

The COPPER (Close Orbiting Propellant Plume and Elemental Recognition) mission is to perform a first flight of a commercially-available, compact microbolometer array, a tiny infrared camera developed by FLIR Systems, to evaluate the suitability of using this instrument for Earth observation and space situational awareness.

COPPER is an 1U CubeSat designed to operate in Low Earth Orbit. It consists of the SCARAB bus and two plug-in payloads:

• The FLIR Tau 320 Microbolometer Array, with a custom-built interface board (giving a greater control over the imager and allowing to store 14-bit images at 30 frames per second) as a test for the Rascal (SLU 04) mission.
• A pathfinder payload provided by Vanderbilt University, in preparation for the Argus mission. The Commodore payload will demonstrate basic interfaces and functionality of their radiation-effects monitoring payload controller.

COPPER was SLU’s entry into the University Nanosat-6 Competition, which ran from 2009-2011. In February 2011, COPPER was selected by NASA for a sponsored launch under its Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) Program. COPPER has been manifested on the ORS-3 launch, a Minotaur-1 rocket flight out of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, VA.

The launch was successful on 20 November 2013 on the ELaNa-4 mission. After deployment, no signals were received from the satellite. A reflight of the mission using a larger 3U CubeSat structure was planned for 2016 as COPPER 2 (SLU 03), but was cancelled later.