NASA — Tiny BurstCube's Super Travelogue

This image shows a small spacecraft on a table enclosed on all sides except the one facing the camera. The sides of the enclosure are clear while the top has two dark gray panels with a light gray frame. The backside is also gray and reflects a strip of light from the room. The spacecraft’s body is a vertical golden rectangle. Shiny black solar panels extend to either side and are much wider than the spacecraft itself. There are a few wires connected to the table, which are visible underneath it. It’s watermarked, “Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts.”

Meet BurstCube! This shoebox-sized satellite tv for pc is designed to check probably the most highly effective explosions within the cosmos, referred to as gamma-ray bursts. It detects gamma rays, the highest-energy type of light.

BurstCube could also be small, but it surely had an enormous journey to get to area.

Julie Cox, a mechanical engineer at Goddard, presses aluminized tape to the BurstCube instrument in a laboratory. Julie is wearing a mask, blue lab coat, and gloves, and is holding silver tweezers in one hand. The instrument, which is sitting on a table covered in hardware and tools, has raised silver-colored metal cylinders on top of a flat plate with triangular and rectangular cutouts. A roll of tape sits on the table in the foreground. The image is watermarked with “Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts.”

First, BurstCube was designed and constructed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Right here you possibly can see Julie Cox, an early profession engineer, engaged on BurstCube’s gamma-ray detecting instrument within the Small Satellite tv for pc Lab at Goddard.

BurstCube is a kind of spacecraft referred to as a CubeSat. These tiny missions give early profession engineers and scientists the possibility to find out about mission growth — in addition to do cool science!

This image shows a woman wearing a long-sleeved blue jacket and blue gloves. Her hair is bound up in a clip. She leans over a table, filling out a form. To the right, on the same table, is a shiny box within another clear box — the BurstCube satellite in its protective case. The dim room behind the woman is full of gray beams that cast shadows against the walls. There is an old white barn door in the far wall. The image is watermarked, “Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts.”

Then, after assembling the spacecraft, the BurstCube workforce took it on the highway to conduct a bunch of exams to find out the way it will function in area. Right here you possibly can see one other early profession engineer, Kate Gasaway, engaged on BurstCube at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

She and different members of the workforce used a particular facility there to map BurstCube’s magnetic discipline. This can assist them know the place the instrument is pointing when it’s in area.

Three men in long-sleeved blue jackets, blue gloves, and red hard hats stand around a thermal vacuum chamber. The chamber has a square silver base and a conical white top. The man on the left is handing a wrench to a man standing on the base of the chamber. On the right, the third man looks up at the top of the chamber. They are in a lab with a high ceiling and lots of electrical equipment. An American flag hangs from the ceiling. The image is watermarked “Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts.”

The subsequent cease was again at Goddard, the place the workforce put BurstCube in a vacuum chamber. You may see engineers Franklin Robinson, Elliot Schwartz, and Colton Cohill decreasing the lid right here. They modified the temperature inside so it was extremely popular after which very chilly. This mimics the circumstances BurstCube will expertise in area because it orbits out and in of daylight.

A man in a long-sleeved blue jacket, khaki pants, striped socks, and blue shoes sits on a rooftop. In front of him sits a small, shiny, rectangular spacecraft on top of a black case. Bundles of cables connect to the spacecraft and snake off to the right. He’s looking up at a dusky sky, which behind him is streaked with puffy pink and purple clouds. The horizon shows a line of treetops. The image is watermarked “Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts.”

Then, up on a Goddard rooftop, the workforce — together with early profession engineer Justin Clavette — examined BurstCube’s GPS. This so-called open-sky check helps make sure the workforce can find the satellite tv for pc as soon as it’s in orbit.

A black hard-shell box containing the tiny BurstCube satellite sits on a blue economy-class airplane seat by the window. The case has a blue circular NASA sticker, as well as a yellow square sticker, and three other multicolored stickers on the upper half of the case. It is strapped into the seat by a seatbelt. Outside of the window, the wing of the plane is visible, and beyond that, a faint view of the airport. The image is watermarked “Credit: NASA/Julie Cox.”

The subsequent large step in BurstCube’s journey was a flight to Houston! The workforce packed it up in a particular case and took it to the airport. After all, BurstCube acquired the window seat!

In this image, a figure in a checkered clean suit and blue gloves loads the BurstCube satellite into a long, gray, rectangular container on a blue table. BurstCube is a smaller rectangle, with gray sides and a shiny black top, where its solar panels rest. In the background, there’s another figure in a clean suit and gloves. There’s a slight reflection that shows this picture was taken through a window. The image is watermarked, “Credit: NASA/Lucia Tian.”

As soon as in Texas, the BurstCube workforce joined their companions at Nanoracks (a part of Voyager House) to get their tiny spacecraft prepared for launch. They loaded the satellite tv for pc into an oblong body referred to as a deployer, together with one other small satellite tv for pc referred to as SNoOPI (Signals of Opportunity P-band Investigation). The deployer is used to push spacecraft into orbit from the International Space Station.

This photograph shows a rocket launching. The bottom of the image is filled with green vegetation interspersed with blue water. The sky is blue, with white clouds visible in the distance. The rocket is in the air, about two-thirds of the way to the top, followed by a fiery tail. Directly below it, at ground level, is white and gray plume of smoke. This image is watermarked, “Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson”

From Houston, BurstCube traveled to Cape Canaveral House Power Station in Florida, the place it launched on SpaceX’s 30th commercial resupply servicing mission on March 21, 2024. BurstCube traveled to the station together with another small satellites, science experiments, in addition to a provide of recent fruit and occasional for the astronauts.

In this photograph, the CRS-30 cargo mission is shown docking with the International Space Station. Against a black background, a white cone — the cargo mission — is attached to a cylinder with a whitish top. There are boxes in the foreground. The image is watermarked, “Credit: NASA.”

A couple of days later, the mission docked on the area station, and the astronauts aboard started unloading all of the provides, together with BurstCube!

In this animated GIF, a boxy white tube extends at a 45-degree angle from the bottom right-hand corner. After a moment, two small, dark, rectangular objects come out of the tube. These are the BurstCube and SNoOPI CubeSats. They’re very close together initially, but as they move out of frame, they start to separate. In the background is the blue marble of Earth streaked with white clouds, as seen from the International Space Station. The image is watermarked “Credit: NASA.”

And at last, on April 18, 2024, BurstCube was launched into orbit. The workforce will spend a month getting the satellite tv for pc prepared to go looking the skies for gamma-ray bursts. Then lastly, after a protracted journey, this tiny satellite tv for pc can embark on its large mission!

This is a photo of nine members of the BurstCube team. BurstCube is the shoebox-sized satellite sitting behind a clear case in the middle of the group. In the photo are three women and six men. Four people standing form a back row, and the remaining five kneel in front of them on a tile floor. Each wears a brightly colored protective jacket and some are attached by gray cords to the surfaces to help them avoid accumulating static electricity. On the ground in front of the team members is bright yellow caution tape. To the left of the image is additional equipment. The photo is watermarked “Credit NASA/Sophia Roberts.”

BurstCube wouldn’t be the spacecraft it’s right this moment with out the enter of many early profession engineers and scientists. Are you interested by studying extra about how one can take part in a mission like this one? There are alternatives for college students in middle and high school in addition to college!

Sustain on BurstCube’s journey with NASA Universe on X and Facebook. And ensure to comply with us on Tumblr in your common dose of area!

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NASA — Tiny BurstCube’s Super Travelogue

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NASA — Tiny BurstCube’s Super Travelogue

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