The mission will usher in a spaceflight program to validate MEMS - tiny
microelectromechanical systems being developed under sponsorship of DARPA, the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The experiment calls for two tethered picosatellites, each weighing less than
one-half-pound and not much larger than a deck of cards, to be released into low Earth
orbit by the OPAL satellite. OPAL is the
Orbiting Picosat Automated Launcher built by Stanford University students at the school's
Space Systems Development Laboratory.
The primary goal of the DARPA/Aerospace picosasts on this mission is to validate
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) radio frequency switches designed by Rockwell
Science Center, Thousand Oaks, Calif. Other MEMS devices are to be validated on subsequent
picosat missions. The mission also is designed to demonstrate the principles of how
constellations of nanosatellites, slightly larger than picosats, will operate in the
future.
The two orbiting picosats are to be tethered because they will communicate via
micropower radios. The tether will keep them within range of each other for crosslink
purposes. In addition, the tether contains thin strands of gold wire to facilitate radar
tracking by U.S. Space Command. Concepts for the future involve optical communication via
fiberoptic tethers and other cluster architectures for miniature satellites for which
experience with tethers is useful.
Another DARPA/Aerospace picosat mission involving a Minotaur booster and an Air Force Research
Laboratory MightySat 2.1 satellite was conducted in July
2000. Plans call for the picosats to be released on command from MightySat 2.1 after
spending specified time on orbit. A more complex mission followed in 2003.
