Elysium Star 2

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Elysium Star 2
Spaceflight SSO-A Mission (45257570925) .jpg
Start of the SSO-A mission with Elysium Star 2
Country: United StatesUnited States United States
Operator: Elysium Space
COSPAR-ID : 2018-099C
Mission dates
Size: 10 x 10 x 11 cm 3 
Begin: December 3, 2018, 18:34  UTC
Starting place: Vandenberg SLC-4E
Launcher: Falcon 9
Flight duration: approx. 4.3 years (expected)Template: future / in 2 years
Orbit data
Rotation time : 96 min
Orbit inclination : 97.7 °
Apogee height :  approx. 600 km
Perigee height :  approx. 580 km

Elysium Star 2 is a funeral satellite of the US space funeral company Elysium Space . It was launched into space on December 3, 2018, along with 63 other satellites on board the Rideshare flight SSO-A . Since then, it has orbited the earth in a polar orbit , although not free-flying, but within a heavy transport device. With this he is expected in 2023 Template: future / in 3 yearsback into the Earth's atmosphere to enter and burn up.

satellite

Elysium Star 2 is a 1U Cubesat , i.e. a cube with an edge length of 10 centimeters. The side surfaces of the cube are made of bare aluminum . Inside are - according to Elysium Space - about 100 small aluminum containers with parts of the ashes of each cremated deceased. There would have been room for several hundred more of these capsules. The satellite is provided with a Cubit identifier , a small radio transmitter that emits a detection signal.

Elysium is the Latin name for the "island of the blessed" in Greek mythology . The name of the satellite can therefore be translated as "Star of the Isle of the Blessed No. 2".

mission

The satellite was one of 64 payloads on Rideshare flight SSO-A . The remaining 63 included the space artwork Orbital Reflector and the German research satellite Eucropis . The original plan was to have over 80 satellites on board, but not all of them had been completed by the launch date.

The mission was organized by the rideshare service provider Spaceflight Industries , who booked a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX . "SSO" is an abbreviation for the sun-synchronous orbit ( English sun-synchronous orbit ), were in the suspend satellite; "A" denotes the first of a planned series of such Falcon 9 rideshare flights by Spaceflight. However, it remained the last for the time being, because the organization of the mission proved to be very complex due to the numerous payloads.

Elysium Space called the funeral action Shooting Star Memorial , alluding to the burning up of the satellite in the earth's atmosphere at the end of the mission. The relatives paid US $ 2,490 for each of the mini urns they carried  . It was the company's second funeral flight after the first attempt with the Super Strypi rocket failed in 2015: the rocket had failed to reach Earth orbit due to a technical problem. In the future, Elysium Space is also planning a lunar burial with the Peregrine Mission One .

Start preparation

For the start, Elysium Star 2 was mounted together with other satellites in one of two ring-shaped transport brackets, the so-called lower “Free-Flyer” (German “Freiflieger”). Spaceflight Industries developed the free flyer below. "Bottom" here refers to the mounting position on the rocket: the upper Free-Flyer was stacked on top of the lower. "Free-Flyer" means that the device is released from the upper rocket stage after launch and floats freely in space before it releases the payloads.

According to the person responsible for the project at Spaceflight, the funeral satellite had to be permanently installed in the bracket because Elysium Space had not presented the required official approval for an ejection after take-off. Thomas Civeit, founder and head of Elysium, denied this - the permit had been given, but Spaceflight had probably chosen this approach for other reasons. He did not see a problem in the fact that the decisive factor was the transport of the ash capsules into orbit.

Mission history

The first stage of the Falcon 9 has landed on Just Read the Instructions

Mission SSO-A started on December 3, 2018 at 10:34 a.m. local time (7:34 p.m. CET ) from Vandenberg Air Force Base , California . For the first time in the history of space travel, a rocket stage (the first stage of the Falcon 9) completed a third flight. Then she landed on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Pacific .

The second stage placed the two free-flyers in the intended orbit 43 minutes after take-off. There they ejected the 63 approved satellites at intervals of several minutes, which took a total of four hours. Elysium Star 2 was the only payload left in the lower free flyer.

Then the 65 new objects in space had to be identified, which is done by the US Air Force (using its Space Surveillance System ) in cooperation with the FCC supervisory authority and the satellite operator. This identification phase dragged on for months because the FCC employees were temporarily on leave due to the 2018/19 US budget freeze and then had to work off backlogs. In addition, it was difficult to distinguish the numerous small satellites in similar orbits from one another. Several went undetected. The two free flyers, however, could be assigned.

For the further course, it was planned that Elysium Star 2 will re-enter the earth's atmosphere after two years in space. Remaining in the transport device doubles the flight time, because this massive device experiences less braking effect from exospheric friction than the lightweight Cubesat. Although each of the two free flyers has a brake sail of 16 square meters, the one with the funeral satellite will probably only burn up in the atmosphere after about four and a half years. The other remains in orbit for seven years because of its greater weight.

See also

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b The body of a 1U Cubesat like Elysium Star 2 is cube-shaped, but four corner strips protrude so that the total height is a good 11 centimeters.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Elysium / lower free flyer at N2YO.com, accessed September 12, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c Gunter Dirk Krebs: Elysium-Star 2. Accessed on September 12, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Hot it works . Elysium Space, accessed September 12, 2019.
  4. ↑ Elysium Star 2 memorial spacecraft is now orbiting the Earth! . Elysium Space, September 12, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b c SSO-A (Sun Synchronous Orbit - A) - first Rideshare mission of Spaceflight Industries. In: eoPortal. ESA, accessed September 12, 2019 .
  6. ^ A b Jeff Foust: Spaceflight herded 64 cubesats onto a single Falcon 9 and has the scratch marks to prove it. In: Spacenews. August 23, 2019, accessed September 12, 2019 .
  7. ^ Shooting Star Memorial. Elysium Space, archived from the original on August 23, 2018 ; accessed on September 12, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander will be onboard a ULA launch vehicle. Elysium Space, July 26, 2017, accessed September 12, 2019 .
  9. ↑ a b c Stephen Clark: Spaceflight's 64-satellite rideshare mission set to last five hours. In: Spaceflight Now. December 3, 2018, accessed September 12, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Gunseli Yalcinkaya: Trevor Paglen's art installation in limbo in earth's orbit. In: deezen.com. March 22, 2019, accessed March 25, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Upper free flyer at N2YO.com, accessed September 12, 2019.
  12. ^ Daniel Starkey: SpaceX Will Launch Human Remains Later This Year. In: Geek.com. May 20, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Jeffrey Roberts: SSO-A Orbital Debris Assessment Report (ODAR). (PDF; 1 MB) Spaceflight, Inc., May 11, 2018, accessed on September 12, 2019 .