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CubeSail A, B
CubeSail [UoI]
CubeSail (launch configuration) [CUA]
CubeSail is a cubesat mission for upper atmospheric research designed and built by the department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The CubeSail mission is a low-cost demonstration of the UltraSail solar sailing concept, using two near-identical 1.5U CubeSat satellites to deploy a 260 m-long, 20 m2 reflecting film. The two satellites are launched as a unit, detumbled, and separated, with the film unwinding symmetrically from motorized reels. The conformity to the CubeSat specification allows for reduction in launch costs as a secondary payload and utilization of the University of Illinois-developed spacecraft bus.
The CubeSail demonstration is the first in a series of increasingly-complex missions aimed at validating several spacecraft subsystems, including attitude determination and control, the separation release unit, reel-based film deployment, as well as the dynamical behavior of the sail and on-orbit solar propulsion.
It was selected in 2012 by NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) to be launched as part of the ELaNa program. It was successfully launched on the ELaNa-19 mission on an Electron KS launch vehicle.
| Nation: | USA |
|---|---|
| Type / Application: | Technology |
| Operator: | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Aerospace Engineering |
| Contractors: | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Aerospace Engineering |
| Equipment: | |
| Configuration: | CubeSat (1.5U) |
| Propulsion: | None |
| Power: | Solar cells, batteries |
| Lifetime: | |
| Mass: | |
| Orbit: |
| Satellite | COSPAR | Date | LS | Launch Vehicle | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CubeSail A | 2018-104K ? | 16.12.2018 | OnS LC-1A | Electron KS | with ALBus, CeREs, CHOMPTT, Da Vinci, ISX, NMTSat, RSat-P, Shields 1, STF 1, CubeSail B, TOMSat EagleScout, TOMSat R3, SHFT 1 | |
| CubeSail B | 2018-104K ? | 16.12.2018 | OnS LC-1A | Electron KS | with ALBus, CeREs, CHOMPTT, Da Vinci, ISX, NMTSat, RSat-P, Shields 1, STF 1, CubeSail A, TOMSat EagleScout, TOMSat R3, SHFT 1 |
References:
- Andrew Pukniel: The Dynamics and Control of the Cubesail Mission — A Solar Sailing Demonstration, 2010
- CUA: CubeSail website
