FalconSAT is the name of the United States Air Force Academy's small satellite engineering program. The United States Air Force Academy ( USAFA or Air Force) is an accredited college for the undergraduate education of officers for the United States Air This article is about artificial satellites For natural satellites also known as moons see Natural satellite. Under the direction of the highly esteemed distance swimmer, LtCol Tim Lawrence, Satellites are designed, built, tested, and operated by Academy cadets. The project is administered by the USAFA Space Systems Research Center under the direction of the Department of Astronautics. The United States Air Force Academy ( USAFA or Air Force) is an accredited college for the undergraduate education of officers for the United States Air Astronautics, or Astronautical Engineering is the branch of Engineering that deals with machines designed to exit or work entirely beyond the Earth's atmosphere. Most of the cadets who work on the project are pursuing a bachelor of science degree in astronautical engineering, although students from other disciplines (typically electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or computer science) join the project. A Bachelor of Science ( BS, BSc or BSc in the UK; less commonly S A degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of Higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing Aerospace engineering is the branch of Engineering behind the design construction and science of Aircraft and Spacecraft. Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of Engineering that deals with the study and application of Mechanical Engineering is an Engineering discipline that involves the application of principles of physics for analysis Design, Manufacturing Computer science (or computing science) is the study and the Science of the theoretical foundations of Information and Computation and their
Compared to most commercial satellite projects, FalconSat is considerably lower budget, and follows a very accelerated development cycle. Because of the near total personnel turnover every year (the program is generally a senior cadet project, and graduating cadets must be replaced yearly) it forces the cadet engineers to very quickly learn and become familiar with the satellite systems to which they are assigned.
FalconSAT has a sister project, FalconLaunch, to design and develop sounding rocket class vehicles. FalconLaunch is the name of a small Sounding rocket development program at the United States Air Force Academy. A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying Rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during
Satellites
- FalconGOLD - launched in 1997 on an Atlas rocket. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar Tested and proved the feasibility of using GPS to determine orbit position when outside the extent of the GPS constellation. Basic concept of GPS operation A GPS receiver calculates its position by carefully timing the signals sent by the constellation of GPS Satellites high above the Earth
- FalconSAT-1 - launched in January 2000 on a converted Minuteman II missile. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. The LGM-30 Minuteman is a United States nuclear Missile, a land-based Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM It carried the CHAWS (Charging Hazards and Wake Studies) experiment developed by the Physics Department at the Academy. The satellite was successfully placed into orbit but was lost about a month later due to its power system not properly charging its batteries. [1] International Designator: 2000-004D
- FalconSAT-2 - Significantly damaged when Falcon 1 launch vehicle failed seconds after launch. The Falcon 1 is a partially reusable Launch system designed and manufactured by SpaceX. Despite the loss of the launch vehicle, the satellite landed, mostly intact in a support building for the launch vehicle. It was originally scheduled for launch on STS-114 with the Space Shuttle Atlantis in January 2003. NASA 's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System ( STS) is the Spacecraft currently used by the United States Space Shuttle Atlantis ( Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-104 is one of the three currently operational orbiters in the Space Shuttle fleet of Its payload was the MESA instrument (Miniaturized electrostatic Analyzer), which would have been used to sample plasma in the upper atmosphere. In Physics and Chemistry, plasma is an Ionized Gas, in which a certain proportion of Electrons are free rather than being bound Temperature and layers The temperature of the Earth's atmosphere varies with altitude the mathematical relationship between temperature and altitude varies among five The data would have been used to correlate the effect of ionospheric plasma on trans-ionospheric radio communications. The ionosphere is the uppermost part of the atmosphere, distinguished because it is Ionized by solar radiation
- FalconSAT-3 - contains 5 experiments, including a gravity gradient boom, launch adapter shock ring, and several DARPA sponsored payloads, including MPACS (Micro Propulsion Attitude Control System), FLAPS (Flat Plasma Spectrometer), and PLANE (Plasma Local Anomalous Noise Experiment). The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new Technology The launch, aboard an Atlas V 401 from LC-41 at Cape Canaveral, was scheduled to occur on December 8, 2006, however as this was on the same day as the scheduled launch of STS-116, and a 48-hour turnaround was required, it was delayed. The Atlas V Rocket is an Expendable launch vehicle formerly built by Lockheed Martin and now built by the Lockheed Martin- Boeing joint venture Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 41 ( LC-41) is an active Launch Site at Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS is a detachment of the 45th Space Wing (45 SW Patrick AFB provides headquarters functions from the 45 SW a major airfield Events 1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room the second public library of Europe. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. STS-116 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS flown by Space Shuttle '' Discovery''. Launch took place on 8 March 2007 alongside MidSTAR-1. Events 1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. MidSTAR-1 is an artificial Satellite produced by the United States Naval Academy Small Satellite Program (SSP When the scientific mission of the program is completed, the satellite will be placed into amateur repeater mode and opened to use by amateur radio operators. Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a Hobby and a service in which participants called "hams" use various types of Radio communications
- FalconSAT-4 and -5 - are currently in the early design stages.
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