SSETI Express

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SSETI Express
Type: Experimental satellite
Operator: ESA
COSPAR-ID : 2005-043E
Mission dates
Dimensions: 60 kg
Begin: October 27, 2005, 06:52 UTC
Starting place: Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Launcher: Cosmos 3M
Status: out of service since November 1, 2005
Orbit data
Rotation time : 98.7 min
Orbit inclination : 98.2 °
Apogee height :  708 km
Perigee height :  682 km

SSETI Express (also OSCAR 53 ) is a microsatellite launched on October 27, 2005 from the Russian space airport Plesetsk , which was designed and built by over 200 students from around 20 universities in 12 countries. SSETI is called " Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative " (space exploration and technology initiative for students). The SSETI Express weighed 60 kilograms and was the world's first “student satellite”.

The satellite was launched at 06:52 UTC and orbited the earth at an altitude of approximately 690 km. After the successful start, it was assigned the OSCAR number 53.

The satellite carried three pico satellites with an edge length of 10 centimeters and about 1 kilogram of mass. These three satellites were placed in orbit:

On November 1, 2005, after a five-day flight, ESA lost contact with SSETI Express. The power supply in the satellite failed and the satellite could not be charged. The error was apparently triggered by a thermal overload in the charge control unit. The concatenation of several circumstances played a role that were not tested in this form on earth:

According to current knowledge, the incident sunlight had activated the power supply through the solar cells. However, since all payloads had to remain switched off for approx. 60 minutes after exposure and the battery was fully charged, the energy generated by the charging electronics could only be 'consumed' as heat. A design error then led to an insufficient distribution of the heat load and ultimately to the failure of a crucial component.

Even so, the mission is considered an outstanding achievement. The satellite worked without any problems until the battery was completely discharged. All three picosatellites were launched. The launch was accompanied by one of ESA's largest PR campaigns to date. In addition, the required period of time between the definition of the mission and readiness to start with 18 months for projects of this size is an impressive achievement, which underlines the high level of motivation, mobility and commitment of the participants scattered all over Europe. Due to the successful implementation of the SSETI Express mission, ESA granted further support for the SSETI sister missions ( ESEO , ESMO ). The ESMO project was discontinued in 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SSETI-Express in the NSSDCA Master Catalog , accessed on October 11, 2012 (English).