CU-Boulder student-built miniature satellite to study solar flares launched into
orbit
Dec. 3, 2015
Colden Rouleau/ Scott Palo
A NASA-funded miniature satellite built by CU-Boulder students will launch
this afternoon from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the start of a six-month-long
mission to study solar flares and the powerful X-rays emitted by the sun.
Called the Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer, or MinXSS, it will help shed
light on how powerful solar flares impact the Earth’s atmosphere, an effect
known as space weather, says graduate student Colden Rouleau (RUE-low).
CUT 1 “MinXXS is going to be studying the sun. We’re looking at solar flares.
And solar flares are really important because they have a huge impact on
space weather and they can even impact the actual weather on Earth as well.
(:12) And understanding the way space weather works is important for
satellite operations. GPS satellites are affected dramatically by space weather
and we are consistently monitoring that and correcting for those things.” (:23)
The type of satellite built by the students is a CubeSat – a small, low-cost,
short lifespan satellite built to take specific scientific observations and
measurements. It’s tiny - only 4 inches wide by 4 inches long by 12 inches
high — about the size of a loaf of bread and features cost-saving electronics
that can be bought off the shelf, says Scott Palo, an aerospace professor and
associate dean of research in the department of engineering.
CUT 2 “A lot of the work that people have been doing is using electronics
which are available off the shelf – commercial electronics - which are relatively
cost-effective because of the large volume of electronics that are built for the
commercial market (:14) So one of the things we have been doing with
CubeSat is that we the ability to buy these commercial parts and learn how
they work in space and that gives us the opportunity to learn from that
experience and then to evolve the design rather than using larger, expensive
electronics.” (:29)
The MinXSS will be carried to the International Space Station via a United
Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Space station astronauts will deploy it into
space next January where it will operate for up to 12 months. For Rouleau
and the other students that worked on the project knowing that their
spacecraft is gathering valuable data is astonishing.
CUT 3 “The opportunities I have at CU-Boulder are basically giving me the
experiences I need to be successful as I go forward because I’m working
hands-on on projects. I’m getting my hands dirty. I’m really getting involved.
And I’m not just studying things in a book, essentially. These are real projects.
(:18) I think that these opportunities are going to just catapult me into where
I want to go and let me work on the really cool things that are going to
change the world.” (:28)
Over 40 students have worked on the MinXSS mission, continuing a successful
tradition of CU-Boulder students designing and flying CubeSat missions,
including the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment, which launched in
September 2012.
The UAL Atlas rocket carrying the MinXXS CubeSat will launch today at 5:55
p.m. EST. For more information go to:
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2015/12/02/cu-boulder-builtminxss-cube-satellite-study-solar-flares-x-rays-emitted-sun.
Or visit the CU-Boulder MinXXS CubeSat homepage at:
http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/minxss/.
-CU-