[Scan-DC] THREE U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY SATTELITES TO LAUNCH DURING UPCOMING SHUTTLE FLIGHT

[Alan Henney]

#152-06

Media Contacts:
Judy Campbell
Deborah Goode

THREE U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY SATTELITES TO LAUNCH DURING UPCOMING SHUTTLE
FLIGHT

     ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Three satellites with systems designed, built,
and tested by Naval Academy Midshipmen at the Academy's Satellite
Laboratory will be launched into orbit by Space Shuttle Mission
STS-116.  The shuttle is scheduled to launch tonight.

After completion of STS-116’s mission to the International Space
Station, the Shuttle will deploy the Naval Academy satellites, Radar
Fence Transponder (RAFT), Military Affiliate Radio System
Communications (MARSCOM) and Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment
(ANDE).  These satellites were designed, built and tested by
Midshipmen in the Classes of 2003, 2004 and 2005 under the supervision
of Senior Research Engineer Robert Bruninga as a part of our aerospace
engineering program.  Current Naval Academy Midshipmen are working on
the next generation Academy satellite, PARKINSONSAT.

The primary mission of the RAFT satellite is tied to the calibration
of the Department of Defense's Space Surveillance Radar which is a
major source of satellite tracking data for all spacecraft in the U.S.
This radar helps generate the tracking data used by most satellite
tracking systems worldwide.  The MARScom satellite is similar to RAFT
but operates on Navy-Marine Corps MARS frequencies for volunteer
Department of Defense communications experiments.

The secondary mission of RAFT and MARScom is to provide a digital
communications relay for mobile units to transmit their GPS
coordinates and messages via the satellites. This is a continuation of
the Naval Academy's previous Prototype Communications Satellite and
PCSAT2 missions. The downlink is made public in accordance with the
rules of the International Amateur Satellite Service, and is received
by a global system of volunteer ground stations that feed the live web
 page network: http://pcsat.aprs.org.

ANDE was developed by the Naval Research labs as an "Atmospheric
Neutral Density Experiment" to measure the decay from orbit of a
perfectly spherical 19" ball.  Upon learning that the sphere would be
empty, the Naval Academy proposed an amateur radio transponder for the
inside.  Since there could be no external antennas, solar panels or
anything that would disturb the aerodynamic performance of the very
smooth sphere, Bruninga suggested that the spherical satellite be
split in half with an insulator.  The resulting space frame could then
be used as the antenna for the VHF system.  There are 112 Lithium "D"
cells inside the sphere to power it for a year.

Chairman of the Naval Academy Aerospace Engineering Department,
Professor Daryl G. Boden said, “The Aero Department is extremely proud
of the midshipmen who have contributed to this effort and of Bob
Bruninga, who never ceases to amaze me with what he can accomplish.”

The information from these satellites will be similar to that of
previous Naval Academy satellites and will be distributed by the
network of volunteer ground stations to feed a central live telemetry
Web site http://pcsat.aprs.org.  This makes the downlink valuable for
students and educators because it will be available on a “live” basis
more often than just the few eight minute passes per day that each
single station might receive alone.

For technical details on the Naval Academy satellites, see the
ANDE/RAFT operations web page:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/%7Ebruninga/ande-raft-ops.html

USNA