Space Industry and Business News  
MICROSAT BLITZ
PICASSO, ESA's CubeSat to sift secrets from sunrise
by Staff Writers
Paris (ESA) Jun 16, 2020

illustration only

There is always a sunrise and sunset happening somewhere on our planet. Soon ESA's newest CubeSat - flying aboard Europe's Vega launcher this Friday - will be keeping watch. The miniature PICASSO mission will use the filtering of sunlight by Earth's atmosphere to check the health of our protective ozone layer.

CubeSats are miniature satellites built up from standardised 10-cm boxes. The PICo-satellite for Atmospheric and Space Science Observations, or PICASSO, developed for ESA by the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BISA), is a '3-unit' CubeSat with two scientific payloads. It hosts a cut-down spectrometer for monitoring the atmosphere, as well as sampling probes (called 'SLP') to measure space plasma around the nanosatellite.

"PICASSO is an experiment, basically," explains project scientist Didier Fussen, heading the Solar Radiation Department at BISA. "Can an instrument providing valid scientific measurements of the ozone layer, which is a vital parameter for the health of life on Earth, be accommodated on a platform the size of a shoe box?

"The answer turns out to be yes. To make it happen we've worked with our partners AAC Clyde Space in Scotland who constructed our CubeSat, and VTT Finland who provided us with a suitably scaled-down spectrometer.

"Meanwhile BISA colleagues contributed a quartet of homemade Langmuir probes to take advantage of this flight opportunity. Extending from the solar panels of the nanosatellite, these 'SLP' probes will sample variations in space plasma across PICASSO's orbit, opening a new window on space weather.

"The other essential elements enabling the mission have been financial support from BELSPO, the Belgium Science Policy Office, the UK Space Agency and the Belgian National Lottery, as well as the technical backing from ESA: CubeSats are small in scale, and use commercial off-the-shelf parts to boost affordability, but for scientific purposes their overall complexity is starting to approach that of a standard-sized mission."

Something in the air
Focused on the study of the upper atmosphere, BISA has contributed instruments to many other satellites over the years, in particular by proposing the forthcoming ESA Earth Watch mission Altius which will monitor the ozone layer and upper atmosphere across a much wider spectral band, but PICASSO is the Institute's first CubeSat mission.

The impetus for global ozone monitoring from spaceborne instruments goes back to the mid-1980s, and the shock discovery of a hole in the ozone layer by Antarctic scientists, subsequently confirmed by satellite data. The finding that the ozone layer was being eroded by human-made gases was bad news because it plays a vital role in shielding life from harmful ultraviolet radiation.

In reaction, in parallel to the international banning of the 'chlorofluorocarbon' gases responsible, a new generation of ozone-monitoring instruments were designed and launched, many of which BISA contributed to. For instance, ESA's 2002-launched Envisat environmental satellite alone carried three such atmospheric sounders.

"The result was something of a golden age for ozone monitoring with a good vertical resolution," adds Dr Fussen, "but this is now coming to an end as most missions reach the end of their lives. So PICASSO will serve as a demonstrator of the capacity of small satellites to perform monitoring of atmospheric composition.

"Current trends suggest the ozone hole is gradually stabilizing or recovering, but we cannot simply hope for the best," says Didier. "Atmospheric dynamics has a large natural variability year on year, which demands ongoing observation."

PICASSO's spectrometer operates on the basis of the solar occultation method, a sophisticated version of 'spot the difference'. It compares the spectral signatures of sunlight shone through the atmosphere with sunlight coming directly through space to perform vertical mapping of ozone concentration profiles.

Observing sunrises and sunsets twice per orbit, the CubeSat will also attempt an experimental method of taking the temperature of the upper atmosphere. Didier explains: "As we image the solar disc, we will measure how it has been compressed by the lensing effect of atmospheric refraction, making it smaller and less circular. From this 'angular size variation' it is possible to calculate the density of the air at high altitude, and from that derive its temperature."

PICASSO has been supported through the 'Fly' element of ESA's General Support Technology Programme, readying promising technologies for space. It will be launched along with dozens of other CubeSats and small satellites aboard the inaugural flight of ESA's Vega Small Spacecraft Mission Service this Friday early morning.

Follow the launch on ESA Web TV from 03:15 CEST, with liftoff due at 03:51 CEST (01:51 UTC, 10:51 on Thursday night French Guiana time).


Related Links
PICo-satellite for Atmospheric and Space Science Observations (PICASSO)
Microsat News and Nanosat News at SpaceMart.com


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


MICROSAT BLITZ
Loft Orbital awards launch contract to Exolaunch to deliver YAM-3 microsatellite into orbit on Falcon 9
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jun 12, 2020
Exolaunch, the leading rideshare launch and deployment solutions provider, has announced a Launch Services Agreement with Loft Orbital, a San Francisco-based company, to deliver Loft Orbital's YAM microsatellite into sun-synchronous orbit on Falcon 9. Under the contract, Exolaunch will deliver mission management, deployment and integration services to Loft Orbital, who operates microsatellites and flies customers' payloads as a service. The launch is targeted for December 2020 and is part of Space ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

MICROSAT BLITZ
Speed of space storms key to protecting astronauts and satellites from radiation

New technique for engineering living materials and patterns

How magnetic fields and 3D printers will create the pills of tomorrow

A breakthrough in developing multi-watt terahertz lasers

MICROSAT BLITZ
Long-range communications without large, power-hungry antennas

Hughes demonstrates Live, HD transmission over satellite from an in-flight Black Hawk helicopter

Marine Corps satellite communications system exceeding performance expectations

General Atomics partners with space development agency to demonstrate optical intersatellite link

MICROSAT BLITZ
MICROSAT BLITZ
China tests inter-satellite links of BeiDou navigation system

GPS III SV-08 core mate complete, space vehicle named for NASA Trailblazer

China's BeiDou navigation enables smarter agricultural production

Penultimate BeiDou satellite starts operation in network

MICROSAT BLITZ
Progress on cruise motors, future wing sets stage for all-electric X-57 ground tests

Denmark to compensate homeowners for excessive noise from F-35s

Lockheed Martin awarded $368.2M to build six F-35s for Italy

Bell Textron delivers 400th V-22 Osprey tiltroter aircraft

MICROSAT BLITZ
Silicon 'neurons' may add a new dimension to computer processors

Engineers put tens of thousands of artificial brain synapses on a single chip

Sound waves transport droplets for rewritable lab-on-a-chip devices

New supercapacitor opens door to better wearable electronics

MICROSAT BLITZ
China plans to launch meteorological satellite to dawn-dusk orbit

Looking up to the stars can reveal what's deep below

Half the earth relatively intact from global human influence

Scientists present new method for remote sensing of atmospheric dynamics

MICROSAT BLITZ
Europe's beaches steadily getting cleaner: report

Russia says 'years' needed to clean up Arctic spill

Environmental pollutant may be more hazardous than previously thought

Thousands of tons of ocean pollution can be saved by changing washing habits









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.