Miranda (spacecraft)
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Miranda (spacecraft)
Miranda, also known as X-4, is a British satellite in low Earth orbit. The satellite was launched in March 1974 as an engineering test bed of technologies in orbit. Miranda was named after a character in the Shakespeare play ''The Tempest'', just like Prospero (spacecraft) and Ariel 1. Design Operational Miranda used propane cold gas thrusters for attitude control. Sensors It contained a Canopus star sensor to determine the reflectivity and interference caused by the propane. Launch Miranda was due to be launched by a British Black Arrow rocket, but due to the project's cancellation the payload was instead launched on the NASA-owned rocket Scout. Mission Designed as an engineering test bed for various technologies in orbit, Miranda carried various sensors and detectors. Current status The satellite is now non-active, but remains in low Earth orbit. See also * 1974 in spaceflight On 29 March 1974 Mariner 10 ''Mariner 10'' was an American Robotic spacecr ...
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Hawker Siddeley Dynamics
Hawker or Hawkers may refer to: Places *Hawker, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra *Hawker, South Australia, a town *Division of Hawker, an Electoral Division in South Australia *Hawker Island, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica *Hawker Creek, Missouri, United States In business * Hawker (trade), a vendor of food or merchandise * Hawker Aircraft, a British aircraft manufacturer * Hawkers (company), a Spanish sunglasses company Other uses * Hawker (surname) * One who practices falconry, hunting with hawks * Hawker College Hawker College is a senior secondary college in Hawker, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Aus ..., a senior secondary college in the Australian Capital Territory * Hawker (dragonfly), a family of dragonflies in North America and Europe {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawker ...
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Cold Gas Thruster
A cold gas thruster (or a cold gas propulsion system) is a type of rocket engine which uses the expansion of a (typically inert) pressurized gas to generate thrust. As opposed to traditional rocket engines, a cold gas thruster does not house any combustion and therefore has lower thrust and specific impulse, efficiency compared to conventional monopropellant and Liquid-propellant rocket, bipropellant rocket engines. Cold gas thrusters have been referred to as the "simplest manifestation of a rocket engine" because their design consists only of a fuel tank, a regulating valve, a propelling nozzle, and the little required plumbing. They are the cheapest, simplest, and most reliable propulsion systems available for orbital maintenance, maneuvering and Spacecraft attitude control, attitude control. Cold gas thrusters are predominantly used to provide stabilization for smaller space missions which require contaminant-free operation. Specifically, CubeSat propulsion system development ha ...
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Science And Technology In The United Kingdom
Science and technology in the United Kingdom has a long history, producing many important figures and developments in the field. Major theorists from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland include Isaac Newton whose laws of motion and illumination of gravity have been seen as a keystone of modern science and Charles Darwin whose theory of evolution by natural selection was fundamental to the development of modern biology. Major scientific discoveries include hydrogen by Henry Cavendish, penicillin by Alexander Fleming, and the structure of DNA, by Francis Crick and others. Major engineering projects and applications pursued by people from the United Kingdom include the steam locomotive developed by Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian, the jet engine by Frank Whittle and the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee. The United Kingdom continues to play a major role in the development of science and technology and major technological sectors include the aerospace, mot ...
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Satellites Orbiting Earth
A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scientific research, and Earth observation. Additional military uses are reconnaissance, early warning, signals intelligence and, potentially, weapon delivery. Other satellites include the final rocket stages that place satellites in orbit and formerly useful satellites that later become defunct. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Most satellites also have a method of communication to ground stations, called transponders. Many satellites use a standardized bus to save cost and work, the most popular of which are small CubeSats. Similar satellites can work together as groups, forming constellations. Becau ...
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Spacecraft Launched In 1974
A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, and transportation of humans and cargo. All spacecraft except single-stage-to-orbit vehicles cannot get into space on their own, and require a launch vehicle (carrier rocket). On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a space vehicle enters space and then returns to the surface without having gained sufficient energy or velocity to make a full Earth orbit. For orbital spaceflights, spacecraft enter closed orbits around the Earth or around other celestial bodies. Spacecraft used for human spaceflight carry people on board as crew or passengers from start or on orbit (space stations) only, whereas those used for robotic space missions operate either autonomously or telerobotically. Robotic spacecraft used to support scientific research are space prob ...
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1974 In Spaceflight
On 29 March 1974 Mariner 10 ''Mariner 10'' was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury (planet), Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets. ''Marin ... became the first spacecraft to fly by Mercury, that saw a spacecraft for the first and last time in the 20th century. Orbital launches , colspan=8, January , - , colspan=8, February , - , colspan=8, March , - , colspan=8, April , - , colspan=8, May , - , colspan=8, June , - , colspan=8, July , - , colspan=8, August , - , colspan=8, September , - , colspan=8, October , - , colspan=8, November , - , colspan=8, December , - Suborbital launches , colspan=8, January-March , - , colspan=8, April-June , - , colspan=8, July-September , - , colspan=8, October-December , - Deep Space Rendezvous EVAs Ref ...
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Scout (rocket)
The Scout family of rockets were American launch vehicles designed to place small satellites into orbit around the Earth. The Scout multistage rocket was the first orbital launch vehicle to be entirely composed of Solid rocket, solid fuel stages. It was also the only vehicle of that type until the successful launch of the Japanese Lambda 4S in 1970. The original Scout (a backronym for Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test system) was designed in 1957 at the NACA, at Langley Research Center, Langley center. Scout launch vehicles were used from 1961 until 1994. To enhance reliability the development team opted to use "off the shelf" hardware, originally produced for military programs. According to the NASA fact sheet: "... the first stage motor was a combination of the Jupiter Senior and the Navy UGM-27 Polaris, Polaris; the second stage came from the Army MGM-29 Sergeant; and the third and fourth stage motors were designed by Langley engineers who adapted a version of the Navy Van ...
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NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States's civil list of government space agencies, space program, aeronautics research and outer space, space research. National Aeronautics and Space Act, Established in 1958, it succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the American space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. It has since led most of America's space exploration programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968–1972 Apollo program missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA supports the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Commercial Crew Program and oversees the development of the Orion (spacecraft), Orion spacecraft and the Sp ...
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Black Arrow
Black Arrow, officially capitalised BLACK ARROW,Gibson and Buttler 2007, . was a British satellite expendable launch system. Black Arrow originated from studies by the Royal Aircraft Establishment for carrier rockets based on the earlier Black Knight rocket; the project was authorised by the British government in late 1964. Development of Black Arrow was largely performed by the prime contractor, the British aerospace company Saunders-Roe, and later undertaken by Westland Aircraft as the result of a merger. Both the first and second stage engines were produced by Bristol Siddeley at their factory in Ansty, Warwickshire. Assembly of the first and second stages was carried out at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Once manufactured, each Black Arrow vehicle was transported by ship to Australia prior to being launched from the RAAF Woomera Range Complex. Black Arrow was a three-stage rocket, fuelled by RP-1 paraffin (kerosene) and high-test peroxide, a concentrated form of hydr ...
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Ariel 1
Ariel 1 (also known as UK-1 and S-55), was the first British-American satellite, and the first satellite in the Ariel programme. Its launch in 1962 made the United Kingdom the third country to operate a satellite, after the Soviet Union and the United States. It was constructed in the UK and the United States by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Science and Engineering Research Council, SERC, under an agreement reached as the result of political discussions in 1959 and 1960. The US Starfish Prime exoatmospheric nuclear test affected Ariel 1's operational capability. Development In late 1959, the British National Committee for Space Research proposed the development of Ariel 1 to NASA. By early the following year the two countries had decided upon terms for the Ariel programme's scope and which organisations would be responsible for which parts of the programme. The UK Minister of Science named the satellite after Ariel (Shakespeare character), the sprite in Shakespeare's ''Th ...
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Scout D-1
The Scout family of rockets were American launch vehicles designed to place small satellites into orbit around the Earth. The Scout multistage rocket was the first orbital launch vehicle to be entirely composed of solid fuel stages. It was also the only vehicle of that type until the successful launch of the Japanese Lambda 4S in 1970. The original Scout (a backronym for Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test system) was designed in 1957 at the NACA, at Langley center. Scout launch vehicles were used from 1961 until 1994. To enhance reliability the development team opted to use "off the shelf" hardware, originally produced for military programs. According to the NASA fact sheet: "... the first stage motor was a combination of the Jupiter Senior and the Navy Polaris; the second stage came from the Army MGM-29 Sergeant; and the third and fourth stage motors were designed by Langley engineers who adapted a version of the Navy Vanguard." The first successful orbital launch of a Scou ...
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Prospero (spacecraft)
The ''Prospero'' satellite, also known as the X-3, was launched by the United Kingdom in 1971. It was designed to undertake a series of experiments to study the effects of the space environment on communications satellites and remained operational until 1973, after which it was contacted annually for over 25 years. Although ''Prospero'' was the first British satellite to have been launched successfully by a British rocket, Black Arrow, the first British satellite placed in orbit was ''Ariel 1'', launched in April 1962 on a US rocket. Construction ''Prospero'' was built by the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough. Initially called Puck, it was designed to conduct experiments to test the technologies necessary for communication satellites. Two experimental solar cells setups were tested. One was a test of a lightweight cell and mounting. The other was an attempt to replace the standard fused silica cover of solar cells with a cerium oxide-based cover. Designs for teleme ...
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