ANDESITE

Launch data: Designation  45726 / 20037D Launch date  13 June 2020 - 05:12 UTC Launch site  OnS, LC-1A Launch vehicle  Electron KS Mission  Science Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  590 x 590 km Inclination  97.8° Period  96.5 min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• ANDESITE is a 6U CubeSat that deploys several smaller “pico-satellites” that each have their own self-contained scientific magnetometer, power system and radio communication system. The satellites collect data in a loosely held swarm, relaying the data back to the main spacecraft and down to the Earth through the GlobalStar sat-phone network.
• ANDESITE will rely on widely accessible space-grade hardware developed around the CubeSat concept. ANDESITE seeks to use this technology to design a set of interacting miniature Sensor Nodes, for high-resolution sensing of space and atmospheric environments. A network manager called the Mule will integrate a Command and Data Handling Unit (C&DH) running Android OS to manage the constellation and data.

Mission details:

• Electron 12 was launched from New Zealand on Jun 13, 2020 and placed three small NRO satellites in orbit.
  Also aboard were two cubesats: RAAF M2 Pathfinder for the University of New South Wales and the Royal Australian Air Force, and Boston University′s ANDESITE.
• ANDESITE consists of ANDESITE Mule, a 6U parent spacecraft, and ANDESITE Node 1 to Node 8, small magnetometer subsatellites to be ejected from it to study magnetospheric variation.

External links:

• dk3wn: Satellite Information
• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time satellite tracking