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MISSION OVERVIEW  The Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) is a
small scientific spacecraft designed, built, and operated by the University
of Colorado at Boulder, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
(LASP). Its scientific
goals are to measure nitric oxide density in the terrestrial lower thermosphere
(100-200 km altitude) and analyze the energy inputs to that region from
the sun and magnetosphere that create it and cause its abundance to vary
dramatically. The SNOE spacecraft is
a compact hexagonal structure, 36'' high and 39'' across its widest dimension,
that weighs 254 lbs. It was launched by a Pegasus
XL into a circular orbit, 580 km altitude, at 97.75 degrees inclination
for sun synchronous precession, on 26 Feb. 1998. It spins at 5 rpm with
the spin axis normal to the orbit plane. It carries three instruments:
an ultraviolet spectrometer to measure
nitric oxide altitude profiles, a two-channel auroral
photometer to measure auroral emissions beneath the spacecraft, and a five-channel solar soft X-ray
photometer. Charles Barth is the principal investigator, and Stan Solomon
is the deputy principal investigator of the SNOE project. SNOE is one of
three satellite projects selected for the Student Explorer Demonstration
Initiative program (STEDI). STEDI
is funded by NASA and managed by the
Universities Space Research Association (USRA). |
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THE SPACECRAFT Weight: 254 lbs Power Consumption: 35 W (orbit average) Data Rate: 6 MB/Day |
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INFORMATION For information on the spacecraft and instrument design and on the individual subsystems, see the SNOE Project Library. Pictures, high-resolution graphics, and a few movies can be found in the Project Activity archives. Students are involved in all aspects of the project. Under the supervision of LASP and industry mentors, they worked on the design study, built the spacecraft and instruments, wrote the flight software, integrated and tested the instruments and subsystems, and integrated with the launch vehicle. SNOE will be operated from the LASP Space Technology Research building by a team of students and mission operations professionals . Advanced undergraduates and graduate students will analyze the data. The student training effort was coordinated through a course offered continuously in the CU Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. |
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snoe@lasp.colorado.edu
