Stacksat (POGS & SSR / TEX / SCE)

Stacksat (POGS & SSR /
TEX / SCE) [Joel Powell]

The U.S. military's STACKSAT mission involved the launch of three similar spacecraft, POGS, TEX and SCE. The satellites, based on DSI's Maestro bus, are gravity gradient stabilized. Body mounted solar arrays provide ~15 W orbit average power. Originally the mission was to be launched on a Scout-G1 booster and was to consist of only two spacecraft, but as an Atlas-E Altair-3A became available, a third was added.

• POGS & SSR (Polar Orbiting Geomagnetic Survey & Solid State Recorder) was designed to measure the Earth's magnetic field vector as a function of position. Data from the experiment will be used to improve Earth navigation systems, and is stored in an experimental solid state recorder. It carries a magnetometer to accurately map the Earth's magnetic field for the Defense Mapping Agency. Data is stored in a new Fairchild solid state recorder.
   
• TEX (Transceiver EXperiment) carries a variable power transmitter used to study ionospheric effects on RF transmissions. Data from the experiment will be used to determine minimum spacecraft transmitter power levels for transmission to ground receivers.
   
• SCE (Selective Communications Experiment) carries a variable frequency transmitter to study ionospheric effects at various RF frequencies, and is also designed to demonstrate message store and forward techniques. Six low cost ground stations were designed, built and located around the world to operate these spacecraft.