TRICOM-1R, also known as Tasuki (COSPAR 2018-016A, SATCAT 43201), was a Japanese

nanosatellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites c ...

that was launched during the SS-520-5

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often ...

test launch on 3 February 2018, with a mission to conduct

store and forward Store and forward is a telecommunications technique in which information is sent to an intermediate station where it is kept and sent at a later time to the final destination or to another intermediate station. The intermediate station, or node in ...

data relay and Earth observation using a set of cameras. Developed by the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

, the spacecraft was a low-cost 3U

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

, with a goal of realizing future cost-competitive nanosatellites in the global market by using domestic commercial products. TRICOM-1R decayed from orbit on 21 August 2018.

Overview

TRICOM-1R was built based on the 'Hodoyoshi Reliability Engineering' demonstrated by the Hodoyoshi 3 and 4 microsatellites. It was built by the University of Tokyo Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory, with funding allocated from the Japanese

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry The , METI for short, is a ministry of the Government of Japan. It was created by the 2001 Central Government Reform when the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) merged with agencies from other ministries related to economic acti ...

. The

mission involved the satellite storing weak signal data from terrestrial terminals, and forwarding the data when the satellite flies above ground stations. TRICOM-1R also conducted Earth observation using its main camera and five sub cameras. The name of the spacecraft was partially based on the Japanese word , which means 'to take in', due to the store and forward nature of the mission.

Launch

TRICOM-1R was successfully placed into orbit on 3 February 2018 at 05:03 UTC (14:03 JST), of altitude with orbital inclination angle of 31°.

TRICOM-1

TRICOM-1R was a re-flight of the TRICOM-1 CubeSat. On 14 January 2017 at 23:33 UTC (08:33 JST), the SS-520-4 three-stage orbital rocket was launched from

Uchinoura Space Center The is a space launch facility in the Japanese town of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture. Before the establishment of the JAXA space agency in 2003, it was simply called the (KSC). All of Japan's scientific satellites were launched from Uchino ...

carrying TRICOM-1. 20 seconds after launch, contact was lost with the telemetry transmitter on board the rocket, and the command to ignite the second stage was not sent. The rocket then flew in a

sub-orbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will no ...

trajectory, reaching a maximum altitude of approximately . TRICOM-1 is believed to have crashed into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

with its launcher. Despite loss of telemetry from the rocket, the satellite was automatically released from the rocket around the time it was scheduled to, and ground stations were able to briefly receive telemetry from the satellite.

References

External links

SS-520 4号機実験の実施について
- JAXA Press Release
SS-520-4
- JAXA Digital Archives

- Gunter's Space Page {{Orbital launches in 2018 Satellites of Japan University of Tokyo Spacecraft launched in 2018 2018 in Japan CubeSats

Overview

Launch

TRICOM-1

See also

References

External links