EcAMSat
EcAMSat, or E. coli AntiMicrobial Satellite, was NASA's first 6U CubeSat, developed to investigate the effects of microgravity on the antibiotic resistance of E. coli. The spacecraft was launched aboard an Orbital ATK Antares rocket from Wallops Flight Facility on 12 November 2017, and was deployed from the International Space Station on 20 November 2017.
| Mission type | Biological research |
|---|---|
| Operator | Santa Clara University |
| COSPAR ID | 1998-067NG |
| SATCAT no. | 43019 |
| Website | EcAMSat |
| Mission duration | 25 days[1] 152.5 hr Main Experiment[2] |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Bus | NASA NanoSat 1.0 Bus |
| Manufacturer | NASA |
| Launch mass | 10.7 kilograms (24 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 12 November 2017, 12:19 UTC[3][4] |
| Rocket | Antares 230 |
| Launch site | MARS LP-0A |
| Contractor | Orbital ATK |
| End of mission | |
| Decay date | 8 December 2021[5] |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee altitude | 405.7 kilometres (252.1 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 413.4 kilometres (256.9 mi) |
| Inclination | 51.6 degrees |
| Period | 92.6 minutes |
| Epoch | 1 December 2017[6] |
Background
During the development of the PharmaSat spacecraft, two identical flight units were built and brought to the launch site, with the FLT-2 unit being the one ultimately launched as "PharmaSat". The FLT-1 unit sat in storage, and was later put to use as a NASA Ames Research Center Mission of Opportunity (MoO) flight, selected for funding under the Stand Alone Missions of Opportunity program. Originally named "PharmaSat-ECAM",[7] EcAMSat was developed from both legacy hardware and software from the PharmaSat mission.
EcAMSat was the fifth mission to utilize NASA Ames Research Center's NanoSat 1.0 bus, which has flown on GeneSat-1, PharmaSat, NanoSail-D2, and O/OREOS.
Operations
EcAMSat was operated by Santa Clara University's Robotic Systems Lab in Santa Clara, California. After deployment, the first amateur radio beacon packets were received by amateur radio operator JA0CAW on 20 November 2017,[1] and Santa Clara University closed the S-Band radio link for the first time on 21 November 2017.
EcAMSat transmitted an AX.25 beacon packet once every 5 seconds at 437.100 megahertz.[8]
See also
References
- ^ a b "EcAMSat Mission Dashboard". SCU. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ Spremo, Stephen (19 June 2014). E. coli AntiMicrobial Satellite (EcAMSat): Science Payload System Development and Test (PDF). SSC14. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ Clark, Stephen (12 November 2017). "Space station cargo shipment blasts off aboard Antares rocket". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ Foust, Jeff (12 November 2017). "Antares launches Cygnus spacecraft to ISS". SpaceNews. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ "ECAMSAT". N2YO.com. 8 December 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
- ^ . N2YO.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
- ^ Hines, John W. (17 July 2012). (PDF). NASA Ames. UNSW. p. 29. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
- ^ "EcAMSat Beacon Packet Decoding" (PDF). SCU. 15 November 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2017.