Eu:CROPIS [DLR]
Official name EUCROPIS
Alternative name Eu:CROPIS
Cospar ID 2018-099BB
Norad ID 43807
Launch date 2018-12-03
Launch site AFWTR
Launch vehicle Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5)
Country/Organization Germany
Type application Life sciences
Operator DLR
RCS size LARGE
Decay date ON ORBIT
Period (min) 95.73
Inclination (deg) 97.53
Perigee (km) 548
Apogee (km) 560
Eccentricity 0.0108303249097473
Mean motion (revs. per day) 15.0423064869947
Semi-Major axis (km) 6932.135
Raan (deg) 189.3778
Arg of perigee (deg) 83.268
Shape Cyl + 4 Pan
Mass (kg) 250
Diameter (m) 1
Height (m) 1.13
Span (m^2) 2.9
Lifetime 1 year
Contractors DLR
Power 4 deployable fixed solar arrays, batteries

Eu:CROPIS (Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-Food Production in Space) is a German life science satellite developed by the DLR to investigate the growing of plants in different levels of gravity on Mars and the Moon.

The 250 kg lightweight greenhouse satellite is designed to rotate around its longitudinal axis while orbiting at an altitude of roughly 600 km. In doing so, it will replicate lunar gravity, which is 0.16 times the gravity on Earth, or the gravity on Mars, which is 0.38 times the gravity on Earth depending on the rotational speed. The Eu:CROPIS mission will operate two greenhouse environments. The first of the two greenhouses will operate under lunar conditions for the first six months, while the second greenhouse will operate in a Martian environment for the following six months.

The Eu:CROPIS spacecraft will be manifested as a commercial customer on one of five available ports on Spaceflight?s Sherpa rideshare vehicle on a Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) going to a sun synchronous orbit. Spaceflight?s Sherpa is a free-flying platform that ferries up to 1,500 kg of rideshare spacecraft and provides a hosted payload solution.

The satellite was launched on Spaceflight Industry's SSO-A multi-satellite launch on a Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) rocket.

Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
EUCROPIS 2018-099BB 2018-12-03 AFWTR Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) with SkySat 14, 15, STPSat 5, FalconSat 6, NEXTSat 1, KazSTSAT, eXCITe, SeeMe, ICEYE X2, BlackSky 2, ESEO, Hawk A, B, C, Capella 1, AISTECHSAT 2, CSIM-FD, Hiber 2, ITASAT 1, Landmapper-BC 4, ORS 7A, 7B, Al-Farabi 2, Astrocast 0.1, Audacy 0, BRIO, Centauri 1, Eaglet 1, Enoch, Flock-3s 1, 2, 3, K2SAT, KazSciSat 1, MinXSS 2, Orbital Reflector, RAAF M1, SeaHawk 1, SNUSAT 2, THEA, VESTA, PW-Sat 2, SNUGLITE, VisionCube, RANGE A, B, Elysium-Star 2, ExseedSat 1, Fox 1C, Irvine 02, JY1-Sat, KNACKSAT, MOVE 2, SpaceBEE 5, 6, 7, Suomi-100, WeissSat 1, Sirion Pathfinder 2, OrbWeaver 1, 2, SPAWAR-CAL O, OR, R