MVL-300 (Mikhailo Lomonosov)

MVL-300 [MVL-MSU]

MVL-300 (Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov 300), a.k.a. Mikhailo Lomonosov, is an satellite for simultaneous studies of gamma-bursts by means of optic cameras and gamma-detectors built by the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. The satellite is named to honour the 300th birthday of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov.

The satellite is built on an surplus bus from the Kanopus-V and BKA 1 programs.

The objective of the mission is the observation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and studies of transient phenomena in the Earth's upper atmosphere.

The main instrument is the TUS detector, which was originally planned to be a independent free flying satellite called TUS. The TUS (Tracking Ultraviolet Set Up) detector will be used for measurements of fluorescence light, radiated by EAS (Extensive Air Showers) of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) in the earth atmosphere as well as for transients’ studies within UV-range.

The TUS segmented Fresnel mirror - concentrator consists of 6 standard modules. The size of one module is 58 cm, the mirror thickness in transportation mode is of about 15 cm. In operation mode the full area of the mirror is 1.4 m and the focal distance of the mirror is 150 cm.

For the first time a mirror-concentrator 2 m² in area with a matrix of UV-detectors in its focus is launched to the orbit. This "camera" provides an opportunity for separation and observation of the evolution of UV-bursts with by a factor of 10⁴ lower brightness than its carried currently by means of video-cameras (with up 2 cm² inlet area).

There are also three identic gamma-detectors in the energy range 0.02-5.0 MeV onboard satellite with 90° between axes.

There are several other instruments on board:

• BDRG (Block for X-ray and gamma-radiation detection) is intended for monitoring and locating of gamma-sources at the celectial vault within the gamma-range and for the development of the trigger signal for the ShOK wide-angle optic cameras.
• UFFO, intended for the studies of gamma-bursts, is a 20 cm UV-optic telescope and X-ray camera.
• ShOK (Optic cameras of super-wide field of vision) consists of two stationary fast wide-angle cameras. Their field of vision is situated within the area of gamma-bursts’ detection of other instrumentation onboard the satellite.
• DEPRON (Dosimeter of Electrons, PROtons and Neutrons) is intended for the measurements of the absorbed doses and linear energy transfer spectra from high-energy electrons, protons and nuclei of space radiation, and for detecting of thermal and slow neutrons flux.
• ELFIN-L (Electron Loss and Fields Investigator for Lomonosov) instrument is a joint project of The Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California Los Angeles (IGPP/UCLA) and Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. It consist of a Flux Gate Magnetometer (FGM), an Energetic Particle Detector for Electrons (EPDE), and an Energetic Proton Detector for Ions (EPDI), the same as used on the ELFIN CubeSat.
• The IMISS-1 device has the purpose to test the performance quality of microelectromechanical inertial measuring modules in space. The possibility of using of this device in order to solve the problems of personal spatial orientation correction under extreme conditions, in particular, in an automatic gaze stabilization corrector, will be also studied.