PharmaSat 1 is the first mission in NASA MicroSat Free Flyer
(µSat-FF) Project, a progressive, 4 mission, 5 year effort that is targeted towards
developing and demonstrating autonomous nanosatellite space platforms and technologies to
support multidisciplinary science investigations. The µSat-FF project is enabled by the GeneSat-1 and GeneBox projects, in which 5 kg Nanosatellites,
organized in the 3U Cubesat configuration, were flown in 2006 in both the autonomous
satellite and attached payload configurations, aboard the USAF Minotaur (TacSat 2)
and Bigelow Aerospace Genesis missions,
respectively. The overall goal of the initial µSat-FF Mission, PharmaSat-1, is to test
and validate autonomous, in-situ bioanalytical and sample management technologies to
implement a Principal Investigator defined science experiment to evaluate the efficacy of
an antifungal drug agent on a biological specimen.
PharmaSat will be in a low earth orbit at 40 degrees inclination. The orbit should be
nearly circular with an altitude of 390 km at the start of the mission, degrading to 200 km
after approx 250 to 300 days, at which time it would de-orbit. The satellite is a triple CubeSat with a mass of approx 4 kg.